Chapter 342 Is that a Glitch that I see right there?
Chapter 342 Is that a Glitch that I see right there?
MINUTES LATER.
"Are you serious, Alex?" The one who said these words was Alina, who was staring at Alex with incredulity.
Her face was also scrunched, as if she was deep on pondering some kind of difficult concept.
"Please tell me you’re just joking..." While Alina was saying these words, some hints of uncertainty appeared in her features, which shows how affected she was by whatever Alex just did.
"Alina, I am serious with everything that I just told you." Alex replied confidently as he stared at Alina unflinchingly. "And I promise you that my proposal to you will work."
After Alex said these words, Alina started to sigh before she gave her reply.
"Alex, you told me a plan that involves fusing your consciousness with the consciousness of the Esper World." Alina slowly said as she pinched her nose bridge. She seemed to be bothered by something as her body appeared to be tense. "Do you expect me to just easily accept this plan?"
"Before I explain myself first, let me remind you about something first." Alex said as he crossed his arms. "It will not only be me who will do this consciousness fusion. This time, even you Alina will also fuse your consciousness with the Esper World..."
"Alex, I am happy that you included me in this consciousness fusion, but that is not my problem here." Alina slowly said as she shook her head. "My problem is the fact that your target is the Esper World!"
Before Alex could reply to this, Alina cut him off as she continued talking.
"Alex, the Esper World is my hometown. As much as possible, I would not want anything to tamper it." Alina said as her lips thinned. "Even if you are offering me a plan that will allow me to get stronger, I am not sure I can accept it, since it involves us tampering with the Esper World."
"...Yeah, I think I get your problem..."
"Alex, right now, the Esper World is in a precarious condition. It is paused for the safety of its residents, and we are still scrambling to find a way to make it stable." Alina muttered as she let out another sigh. "Do you think that our plan to fuse our consciousness with the Esper World would benefit it? What if it harms it instead?"
"..."
"Alex, as long as you are unable to reassure me about the safety of the Esper World, I will not be accepting your plan." Alina said with finality as she stared at Alex intently, "Now, if you have nothing more to say, please go back to your couch."
"Just like what I expected. You did reject my plan." Instead of looking discouraged, Alex seemed to be unaffected by Alina’s words, as there were no signs of defeat on his features.
A confident smile could even be seen on his face as he stared back at Alina serenely.
"Alina, what if I told you that the consciousness fusion will be helpful to the Esper World too?" Alex said with relish as he observed Alina’s face. "If I told you that, will you accept the consciousness fusion?"
"...That depends on how helpful your plan will be." Alina replied as her frosty expression started to thaw. "Will the current problem of the Esper World be solved if we go through your plan? Or will it just provide my hometown with a temporary fix?"
"Alina, you don’t need to ask that question anymore. Of course my plan will solve the current problem of the Esper World!" Alex replied quickly as he thumped his chest once. "That is why I am confident on convincing you..."
"You are confident in convincing me to agree with your plan? In that case, convince me then." Alina replied as she leaned back on her seat. "Let’s see how convincing you can get..."
"Ehem, so just like what I told you earlier, both of us can strengthen our Esper Ability and Mental Power once we fuse our consciousness with the Epser World." Alex stated as Alina nodded slowly in front of him. "However, that is not the only benefit that can be derived from the consciousness fusion."
"..."
"Even the World that is the recipient of the consciousness fusion will get benefits too!" Alex said as he resisted the urge to jump up right now.
"Benefits? Don’t tell me..."
"A consciousness of a World will get stronger if it fuses its consciousness with other people." Alex triumphantly said as he gave Alina a smug smile. "As for the level of the strengthening that can happen, it will all depend on many factors, which includes the talent of the people in the fusion, or the quality of the World itself. Pretty amazing, right?"
"!!!"
"At first, this sounds kind of unfair." Alex muttered to himself as Alina seemed to start becoming speechless again. "After all, a World that can get stronger by fusing its consciousness with more and more people... is bound to be terrifying in the future. Fortunately for everyone, the success rate of a consciousness fusion is extremely low, around 3% to be exact. With that kind of abysmal success rate, it will be extremely unreliable for a World to use this method to get stronger. As such-"
"So basically speaking, you are telling me that we can strengthen the consciousness of the Esper World if we implement your plan." Alina finally spoke up as she interrupted Alex.
"Exactly." Alex replied as he nodded at Alina. "That’s good news, right?"
"But even if we can strengthen the consciousness of the Esper World with your plan, what help would that be here?" Alina seemed to still be unconvinced by Alex as she continued barraging him with questions. "Can that help with the Esper World’s current dilemma?"
"Yes it can." Alex replied unperturbedly. "But AliIna, before I continue my answer, can you please tell me the dilemma of the Esper World first?"
"...The problem of the Esper World lies on the fact that it is still a simulation right now." Alina replied as she looked to be irritated from Alex’s antics. "In this kind of simulation state, no matter how strong the Esper World is, it will be easy for someone to accidently or even maliciously destroy it."
"Well said Alina. Well said. Now, if it were you, what would you do to protect the Esper World?"
"...If we want the Esper World to be truly safe and prosperous, we must find a way to materialize the Esper World and its residents here in the ’real world’." Alina replied as a serious glint appeared on her eyes. "Only when the Esper World exists as a fully material object here in the ’real world’ that I can be assured of its safety!"
This is the goal that both Alex and Alina had been aspiring to do in regards to the Esper World.
Both of them wanted to stop the Esper World from just being a simuation. They wanted to see the Esper World as a real and stable world here in the actual ’real world’, where it is safe from virus, bugs, and malicious programmers.
This, this is the paradise that Alex had wanted the Esper World and its residents to experience!
With one look, this goal seemed to be both easy and praiseworthy. However, both Alex and Alina realized it was actually difficult!
After all, the very notion of materializing a simulated world is a new topic that even Alex had been struggling on.
Couple that with the fact that there are no guides that they can use, Alex and Alina immediately realized that it will take them a long time to find a solution for the Esper World.
Needless to say, both of them were disappointed by this.
"Another good explanation, Alina. Keep up the good work!"
"Alex, just cut to the point already. I am so tired now that I just want to sleep." Alina replied angrily as she shuddered from a yawn. "So please just tell me what I need to know!"
"Ehem, so just like what you said earlier, both of us are trying to find a lead on how to materialize the Esper World." Alex said as he stood up from his seat confidently. "We have tried many methods, but none of those worked. At this point, we are only grasping in straws in regards to our plan."
"... "
"But that all changed when I started talking with my powers!" Alex said as he suddenly shouted out. He tried not to show the tiredness in his features as he continued talking "As I talked with my powers earlier, they were able to give me good advices. And one of those advices was related to the status of the Esper World! Hehehe, guess what I discovered!"
"...."
"My powers told me that the possibility of the Esper World materializing will depend on the strength of its consciousness!" Alex uttered out as a chuckle escaped from his mouth. He then looked back at Alina’s eyes as he seemed to start taunting her. "This means that the stronger the consciousness of the Esper World is, the higher will be its chance to materialize and leave the simulation!"
"!!!" Even if Alina did not manage to articulate any reply to Alex, her wide eyes and slightly parted mouth was enough to show her surprise.
"Woosh!" And to reaffirm this point, Alina suddenly swooped above their table as she pulled Alex’s head closer to her, which makes it apparent that her interest is piqued right now.
"..." Alex did his best to look as innocent as possible as he waited for Alina to talk.
"Have you confirmed that this fact is true?" Alina said as her breath started to tickle Alex’s face. "Are you sure that the consciousness of the Esper World is correlated on its chance to materialize itself?"
"I have not confirmed it yet, but I feel that our conjecture was right." Alex replied without a pause. "After all, we are talking about the miraculous presence of consciousness. Surely there is a possibility that it could be the key for us to save the Esper World!"
"Alex, what you just said was indeed exciting. However, since it is not yet confirmed, I am not sure if it really is true..." Alina muttered in disappointment as she let go of Alex. "I really like this idea that your powers just told you, but I am not sure if it will actually work..."
"Heh, if you want to find if it works or not, then you should find it by yourself!" This was Alex’s reply for Alina’s hesitant attitude. "How about it? As long as we fuse our consciousness with the Esper World, we will discover if all of our conjectures are right!"
"..." Alina tried to reject Alex again, but this time, she was unable to say the words, as she was starting to get convinced by him.
"Alina, I promise you that we will be careful here... So please... just allow my plan to be implemented..." Alex said as he continued his ’assault’ on Alina. "Please, let’s do this together. You might regret passing this up..."