茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

In the game, Xiang Kun’s voice was still gently narrating the plot. Although there was not yet a place for her to make choices, the background sound, or more appropriately, the commentary style and rhythm gave her a deep immersion. She was seriously listening to the story, without any impatience.

“Before your consciousness becomes fuzzy, a caravan appears on the distant horizon. You can see it’s a group of merchants. Then, you lose consciousness and faint.”

Fainted just like that? How long will she be out?

Tang Baona looked up upon hearing this at Old Xia, who was also sitting on another sofa, holding his phone and listening attentively to the game audio with his headphones on. She wondered what part of the plot he was currently hearing. Then she looked at Yang Zhen’er, who was sitting in the restaurant with her feet on the table, holding her phone and grinning like an idiot, curious about what she was listening to.

At that moment, a familiar voice came through the headphones: “Your consciousness slowly recovers, and when you open your eyes, you see a face covered with a veil and a turban. Those eyes seem to be able to see through everything. A male voice next to you says:

“Miss, how are you feeling? This is our Master Xia Dong. She was the one who decided to rescue you.”‘

The male voice was still Xiang Kun’s, but due to changes in speech rhythm and pronunciation emphasis, Tang Baona could instantly tell it was an older man. Combining this with the story’s context, she imagined a shopkeeper in his fifties.

At this moment, the ordinary background sound rang again: “You set your sights on the veiled woman and begin to speak…”

Tang Baona was taken aback for a moment, then remembered the content she had heard half an hour ago upon entering the game during the phase where the settings and gameplay were explained. She realized that now was her turn to speak.

So, like how she would send voice messages on WeChat, she pressed a button and began to speak: “Thank you, Master Xia Dong, for rescuing me.”

After releasing her hand and inputting the audio content, she began to wait curiously—this was her first time taking part in the game process. She wanted to see what Xiang Kun’s “It’s up to you to decide how the story develops” mechanism was like.

In her earphones, the narrator started: “The woman with the veil replied to you…” Then, after a pause of two seconds, a familiar voice sounded: “You’re welcome.”

Before Tang Baona had time to wait for the next prompt from the narrator, she pressed the input button and continued to ask: “Old Xia? Is that you?”

Two seconds later, Old Xia’s voice came: “Strictly speaking, you shouldn’t know me now.”

Tang Baona was stunned. Was it really Old Xia?

There was no surprise in Old Xia being “Master Xia Dong” as she knew that the three of them were the only “players” in the game and it was normal to “encounter” each other.

But the problem was that at the beginning, the narrator had introduced that her character, “Tang Ying,” had been injured while escaping after trying to assassinate the leader of the Blood Hand Group, “Xia Libing.”

It was clear therefore that this “Master Xia Dong” with the caravan and the “Xia Libing,” whom she tried to assassinate, were not the same person, otherwise the story wouldn’t have proceeded this way.

If this “Master Xia Dong” is Old Xia, then who is the leader of the Blood Hand Group, “Xia Libing”?

Tang Baona looked at Yang Zhen’er, who was sitting in the restaurant staring at her phone with a cunning smile, and immediately understood. Yang Zhen’er had used the name “Xia Libing” in the game. She was the leader of the Blood Hand Group.

Tang Baona was speechless. This girl even took the real name of another “player”. Clearly, she was planning on playing dirty.

As she thought, she wanted to ask Old Xia for his current name, but suddenly found the voice input button was stuck. After a few seconds, when she thought the game had a glitch and was about to ask Xiang Kun, the narrator’s background voice came on:

“Tang Ying found out that the caravan leader who saved her was an old acquaintance from the martial arts world, ‘Xia Shiwan’. After talking, she learned that the identity of ‘Xia Shiwan’ as the caravan leader was false. Everyone in the caravan was actually her companion. Their journey, like Tang Ying’s, was aimed at assassinating the monstrous leader of the Blood Hand Group, ‘Xia Libing’. Therefore, Tang Ying told the other party about her previous attempt to assassinate ‘Xia Libing’, and the two parties began to discuss how to achieve their common goal.”

“Xia Siwan”? What the hell? Four balls? Old Xia’s naming process was weird. Wait, not four balls, but “Shiwan”? Because he was trying the game out, so he chose the name “Shiwan”, Xia Shiwan? Alright, if Zhen’er’s naming method was too cunning, then Old Xia’s naming method was just too unique.

With these revelations, Tang Baona was stunned. So, according to this setting, do the characters she and Old Xia play already know each other? Was this the original setting, or did the setting change based on the two sentences she just said?

Thinking about the descriptive style of the background voice when she first woke up from the “coma,” and the few seconds of pause earlier, she guessed that the latter was more likely.

However, to judge and modify the subsequent drama in such a short time based on what she said, and to listen to it without feeling much inconsistency, this game was highly intelligent!

She also noticed that the tone of the narrator seemed to have shifted to narrating the entire story, instead of solely speaking to her. It seemed that what she and Old Xia heard was the same narration?

She heard the background voice of the narrator again: “Xia Shiwan checked Tang Ying’s injuries and confirmed that she was stable and not in critical danger. She then called the two strongest members in the caravan to the carriage to discuss the plan to deal with the leader of the Blood Hand Group, ‘Xia Libing’.”

Next, the narrator introduced some details regarding Tang Ying’s previous assassination attempt. Truth be told, even as the creator of the character, Tang Baona was just now learning about these details from the narrator.

Finally, when she got a chance to speak and the input key was reactivated, Tang Baona decided to continue with the plot. So, immersing herself in her character, she asked, “‘Miss Shiwan’… In your opinion, how should we assassinate ‘Xia Libing’… the leader of the Blood Hand Group?”

She wanted to raise a few suggestions on how to deal with the leader of the Blood Hand Group, but when she mentioned the character names chosen by Old Xia and Zhen’er, she could hardly suppress her laughter; it was too hard to bear.

The voice of Xia Libing came: “According to Lady Tang’s story, ‘Xia Libing’ would probably send people to chase you. If our caravan continues as originally planned, we’ll likely encounter the Blood Hand Group between tonight and tomorrow morning. I have a suggestion. Lady Tang, would you help us set up a trap…”

Old Xia was very serious in experiencing the game. Based on the initial introduction by the narrator, in addition to some of his own imaginative scenarios, he came up with a delegation that opportunistically exploited the Blood Hand Group’s motive of chasing “Tang Ying.” He had a spectacular and seemingly feasible plan to lure the “leader of the Blood Hand Group, Xia Libing.”

Tang Baona responded, “‘Miss Shiwan’ is indeed worthy of being called the Heroine Prodigy. Certainly, it’s a great plan!”

“We will follow ‘Miss Shiwan’s’ plan. This time, we must kill Demon Head Xia!”

Two distinct voices resonated one after another. Though they were both underpinned by Xiang Kun’s voice, they were quite different, one being more rough, the other more sharp, reflecting the two experts referred to in the previous narration, who were invited onto the horse carriage by “Xia Shiwan”.

Reluctantly, Tang Baona went along with it and exclaimed, “In honor of Miss Shiwan’s invitation…Puff!” She couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

Unexpectedly, a few seconds later, the rough male voice expressed his concern, “Lady Tang, it seems that your internal injuries are quite severe, you’re spitting blood again?”

Tang Baona was a bit flustered. Could her casual reactions indeed have influenced the story’s development and incited a corresponding reaction from the NPC? This certainly gave the illusion that the NPC was played by a real human.

Xia Libing, however, calmly stated, “It’s nothing, she’s just coughing up stagnated blood.”

A few seconds ticked by, then the rough voice breathed a sigh of relief, “That’s good. Lady Tang is highly skilled. If she can recover quickly, we’ll have another helping hand, increasing our chances of defeating Demon Head Xia.”

Tang Baona realized that significant deviations in narrative direction caused slight interruptions in the story’s progression. Obviously, this required reimagining the story and dialogue, as immediate responses weren’t possible, but these pauses remained within acceptable timeframes.

With their conversation consistently pushing the plot forward, the “great demon”, the “Leader of the Blood Hand Group, Xia Libing”, finally met Tang Ying and Xia Shiwan; the background narration was largely similar for the three of them.

As the story unfolded, the “Leader of the Blood Hand Group, Xia Libing” indeed fell into a trap and was surrounded.

When it was their turn to act, they could command their actions via voice. For instance, Tang Baona followed the guidance to describe her own actions, “I wield my long sword, seize the opportunity when Xia Libing and Xia Shiwan are fighting, and stab her from behind, killing her in one blow!”

However, after the game factored in Tang Ying’s character abilities, settings, environmental variables, and the descriptions of actions provided by Xia Libing and Yang Zhen Er, the narration described her actions as: “…Taking advantage of the battle between Xia Shiwan and Xia Libing, Tang Ying leaped with her long sword, pouring her internal energy into the blade. She and the sword became one, aiming for Xia Libing’s heart. However, Xia Libing had been on guard against her. When Tang Ying tried to stab her, Xia Libing used her famous counterforce skill to deflect the attack towards Xia Shiwan, who was unable to react in time, and was badly injured by the stab to her shoulder…”

Having heard the “battle report”, Xia Libing didn’t react, while Tang Baona, irritated, nearly threw her phone. At the restaurant, Yang Zhen Er triumphantly laughed out loud, took off her headphones and called out from the sofa, “Nana! I knew you’d try to sneak attack! All of this was within my calculations! hia~hia~hia~hia~”

Consequently, their descriptions described the fight as becoming more and more “brutal.” Whether it was Xia Libing’s Blood Hand Group or those who came disguised as members of the trade caravan to assassinate with Xia Shiwan, they all fell in battle. Only the three of them remained in the continuing, brutal fight, and they’d all sustained heavy injuries.

In the end, Tang Baona recalled the setting of the “Sky-breaking Thunder” hidden weapon and had “Tang Ying” use the last one to commit a murder-suicide with the “great demon”, “Xia Libing”.

Ultimately, the only survivor, critically injured and on the verge of collapse, was “Xia Shiwan”.

With the BGM of “Lonely Shadow, My Way” playing in the background, a commentary with a heroic emphasis said, “‘Xia Shiwan’ picked up the broken sword left behind by Tang Ying, carefully wrapped it in a piece of cloth, and collected various weapons from the other fallen heroes, planning to bring them back to the Central Plains for a proper burial in a feng shui treasure land. She knew that despite having defeated the great demon ‘Xia Libing’, the world wouldn’t find peace, and that chaos and strife were eternal themes in the world of martial arts. She was aware that another demon would rise, and it would be her task to defeat him. That was her destiny, until one day, like Tang Ying and the others, she too would die at the hands of another demon…”

Before the narration could finish, Yang Zhen Er took off her headphones, ran to the living room, put her arms around Tang Baona’s shoulders, and sobbed, “Lady Tang, your death was so tragic…”

“Go, go, go! Your fate as the demon head won’t be any better!” Tang Baona retorted.

“Hey, the ‘Demon Head’ is ‘Xia Libing’, what does that have to do with me, ‘Yang Zhen’er’?” Yang Zhen Er squinted, “shamelessly” chuckled.

Having said that, she sighed helplessly: “Nana, why did you choose to perish together with me at the end? Old Xia undeservedly benefited from it!”

Tang Baona gave her a glance: “This isn’t a survival game where the last one standing wins. We are writing a story here. Both Old Xia and I are righteous masters. We have the same goal, that is, to eliminate demons like you!”

“Hey, wait a minute, I don’t think the game mentioned me doing any evil. Why do you call me a demon head? Maybe, I was doing good deeds and got falsely accused?” Yang Zhen’er argued.

Seeing Old Xia also taking off his headphones, contemplating deeply, Xiang Kun, who had been observing the state of their game, finally spoke with a smile, “How do you feel about the game? Is it fun?”

Tang Baona and Yang Zhen’er both eagerly nodded, “It’s fun, very fun.”

It was already past two o’clock in the morning. They had been playing continuously for more than an hour, except for Yang Zhen’er, who took her phone to the bathroom in the middle, they basically hadn’t moved their butts, fully immersed in the game.

“When you asked me to help with the voice synthesis, were you thinking of this game? It feels like the synthetic sound now is more natural than the previous version you made.” Tang Baona admiringly commented. Anyone who played this game would inevitably marvel at the naturalness and smoothness of the synthesized voice inside.

Xiang Kun nodded, “Indeed, it is related to that voice synthesis engine, you could say it’s the foundation. Thanks to your help back then, otherwise it wouldn’t have been so easy to accomplish.”

“Did you make this game all by yourself? That’s too amazing, too impressive!” Yang Zhen’er rarely complimented, “Big chef Xiang, no, Boss Xiang, I guarantee that if you release this game, it will be a massive hit! Hmm, if you’re short on cash, be sure to let me know. I can surely help you attract a lot of investors!”

Xiang Kun laughed, “Not all by myself, I had others helping me, and there are still many problems. We will release multiple beta versions later, at which time I’ll need your help with testing, okay?”

Tang Baona responded, “No problem, this game is really fun. If there are other types of stories in the future, like sci-fi, urban, and fantasy, it will definitely be more interesting. And the more people play, the more fun it will be. The only concern is that if the player’s actions or dialogue affect the story, the processing time may take too long, which could affect the experience.”

“Rest assured, I have a way to slow down the reaction time. During the processing of the storyline, there will be a consistent narration and background sound to keep the ‘players’ immersed in the game narrative. It won’t be interrupted for too long to pull the ‘players’ out of the game.” Xiang Kun assured.

The core of his game was an accurate voice recognition and transformation technology. To date, the technology developed by Alice has been upgraded several times, and its accuracy rate is very high. But this high accuracy rate is based on Xiang Kun’s speaking habits. Besides him, Tang Baona, who provided a large number of voice samples, could also achieve a very high recognition accuracy.

For other players, before the game starts, a process is carried out where the players define their characters through various voice recordings, allowing the program to learn their tone of voice and sentence construction habits and prepare for the subsequent game.

The game begins by arranging the storyline and specific characters according to the players’ chosen game style and their own definitions of the characters. Whenever a player inputs voice, the game quickly transcribes the voice into text and analyzes the player’s intention. If their intention aligns with the original storyline, the game continues. Otherwise, the content is uploaded to the server where Alice analyzes it, quickly forming a new storyline that it sends to each player’s device. The device then reads the story aloud according to the new script.

Anyone who plays this game, even non-professionals and ordinary people, will be amazed by its accuracy in voice recognition, and the natural tone of the AI’s voice reading.