The Gloomy Paper-Man Came to My Door to Pursue His Love - Chapter 17

Xi Li received Qin Fei’s message, but he did not reply, not even after Qin Fei logged off.

There was nothing to reply to. He was the one who had helped send the feedback email. With Qin Fei’s “whale” spending power, the game officials were bound to send a programmer to investigate. He had anticipated this would happen, so he was not surprised.

He turned off the terminal and tossed it aside. It landed on the desk with a sharp click.

The sound drew Xi Li’s gaze back to the device. He stared at the terminal, which existed solely for his contact with Qin Fei. He figured that once Qin Fei received the results, he probably would not log on anymore.

Xi Li averted his gaze. It was for the best; he did not have time to play tedious romance games with Qin Fei.

Xi Li sat on the sofa waiting for the programmer, getting increasingly impatient until finally, the one assigned to the intimacy bug arrived. Xi Li gave the programmer an indifferent glance. The man wore thick glasses and a plaid shirt, with a badge hanging from his neck featuring the Exclusive ABO logo. The badge listed his name and position:

Wang He Senior Software Test Engineer

It seemed the game truly valued a big spender like Qin Fei. However, it would not matter if it were a senior engineer or the CEO himself; his intimacy with Qin Fei would not increase.

The programmer was unaware that Xi Li had already sized him up through the camera. He began by checking Qin Fei’s game logs and noticed that Qin Fei had already used the built-in diagnostic system.

The programmer muttered in confusion, “Wait, it was not fixed?”

Xi Li remained expressionless. He knew Qin Fei had used the internal system. During that scan, it felt like a lie detector was strapped to his brain as the system pulsed with currents: “Why is your intimacy not increasing?”

Xi Li had simply thought: “Because that thing does not exist.”

The system responded: “Ding. Detection passed.”

The programmer moved on to review the interactions between Qin Fei and Xi Li, including main storyline completion, daily conversations, and gift-giving.

“Everything meets the expectations for increasing intimacy. The player’s operations are correct, and the completion rate is excellent. How can the intimacy still not be rising?” the programmer exclaimed.

Xi Li’s expression darkened. The man was too talkative. He just wanted him to finish the test and send the results to Qin Fei so he could focus on finding a way to leave.

“Is it a hardware issue?” The programmer checked Qin Fei’s game version and device type. Though the terminal was a decade old, there were no compatibility issues. Next, he checked the client and server logs.

Bizarrely, he found nothing wrong.

The sound of pulsing current vibrated in Xi Li’s mind; the programmer was attempting to reproduce the issue. Xi Li clicked his tongue, his patience wearing thin.

[Reproducing issue: Testing if the 2D character’s intimacy increases upon seeing the player]

Xi Li sat as still as a mountain. A data packet containing a photo of Qin Fei was transmitted into his mind. It was a candid screenshot from the game. Although the image was blurry, it could not hide Qin Fei’s delicate features.

The programmer noted, “Still no increase.”

[Reproducing issue: Testing if the 2D character’s intimacy increases upon hearing the player’s voice]

An audio file was transmitted. Xi Li heard Qin Fei’s voice:

“Thank you for saving my life, Teacher. This seashell is a witness. I will never forget the day I met you. I hope you can remember me, too.”

The programmer said, “Still no increase.”

[Reproducing issue: Testing if the 2D character’s intimacy increases during main storyline interactions]

This time, it was not just data being pushed into his head; Xi Li’s entire consciousness was shoved into Plot Node 1-2. Xi Li looked up to see Qin Fei with curved eyes, shouting at him:

“Husband, you are so handsome!”

“Husband, I love you!”

“I want to be with my husband forever!”

The programmer was baffled, “Is this for real? Still nothing?”

Xi Li gritted his teeth. This was taking forever.

[Reproducing issue: Testing if the 2D character’s intimacy increases after receiving gifts (Part 1)]

Xi Li’s consciousness was pulled from the plot node and stuffed into the game mall’s Image Preview. It was like playing a dress-up game; the clothes on his body changed constantly. The game logs replayed the data of Qin Fei dressing him:

“This one looks good, I will give it to Sha Bei.”

“This one is nice too, for Sha Bei.”

“This set is not bad either, for Sha Bei.”

“There are even couple rings? Well, I will wait until our intimacy goes up before wearing them with Sha Bei.”

Xi Li froze. He had not known Qin Fei had bought couple rings. He saw that after purchasing them, Qin Fei had paid extra to have their initials engraved:

QF and SB

Xi Li turned his head away.

The programmer was shocked, “Still no increase!” He became even more determined.

[Reproducing issue: Testing if the 2D character’s intimacy increases after receiving gifts (Part 2)]

Xi Li returned to his dilapidated room. The broken wardrobe was now stuffed with outfits Qin Fei had bought for him. He saw White Moonlight’s Temptation and Swaying Light.

[Testing if the 2D character’s intimacy increases after receiving messages]

The terminal chimed. Qin Fei’s message arrived. Xi Li did not even need to look to know the content.

The programmer, staring at the intimacy level stuck at 0%, finally turned his suspicious gaze toward the 2D character itself. “Is there something wrong with the character’s code logic?”

Xi Li gave him a look of utter disdain. He wondered how much money Qin Fei had spent to make this programmer work so tirelessly. However, he was not worried about being found out. Qin Fei’s terminal might track his origin, but right now, he was just a string of data in the game server. If the game could detect his anomaly, it would have happened long ago.

After a long silence, the programmer suddenly gasped, “Aha!” He looked energized. “I knew there was a problem with the intimacy calculation!”

Xi Li thought the guy was talking nonsense. The programmer was clearly suspecting his code logic, not the intimacy calculation.

Suddenly, Xi Li realized something. He snapped his head up and saw the programmer typing furiously, muttering: “So the code logic for the intimacy calculation is…”

He stopped abruptly. The programmer blinked, finding his smooth progress suddenly blocked by a powerful obstacle. He looked up and saw the 2D character’s face was grim. For a moment, he had the illusion that the character was the one stopping him.

But how could that be possible?

The programmer went back to his keyboard, but the task became increasingly difficult, reaching a complete standstill. He looked at the character again. This time, “grim” was an understatement; there was a faint killing intent in those handsome features.

The programmer was confused. He tried several more bypass methods, but all of them failed. He took a deep breath, pulled out his own terminal, and sent several messages to a hundred-person group chat called Code Guardians.

Wang He: @All, help!

Wang He: I found a 2D character whose intimacy calculation code is camouflaged!

Expert A: Code camouflage is just fake code hiding the real code. You cannot handle that?

Wang He: It is like a cyber-wall. I have tried everything, but I cannot break through the barrier. It is like a living entity is protecting the real intimacy code and will not let me crack it.

Wang He: @All, please save me, experts!

The term “cyber-wall” was novel, and the group chat exploded.

Expert B: Let me see. Expert C: I will take a look. Expert D, E, F, G: We will all look.

The programmer felt a bit more at ease seeing the flood of replies. He took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes, and looked back at Xi Li. Xi Li still wore that dark, murderous expression, as if he were about to explode.

Xi Li was indeed on the verge of exploding. This group of people was collaborating to crack his real intimacy code. He wished he could throw them all to the mutants. He took a deep breath. He would not just wait to be caught. He mobilized his consciousness data, resolutely building fortifications over his code.

One night passed. A day passed. Another night passed.

The programmer’s eyes were bloodshot. His terminal rang for a long time before he realized he had missed three calls. When it rang again, he answered groggily, “Who is it?”

He paused, confused. “Qin Fei?”

A gentle voice came from the other end: “Hello, Mr. Programmer. I wanted to ask about the progress of the intimacy bug detection. I am sorry to bother you, but I really miss my Sha Bei.”

Sha Bei?

The programmer looked up. On the monitor, the character’s expression seemed to freeze for a split second. In that exact moment, a notification appeared.

[Cracking Successful]

The programmer froze. The 2D character froze.

Only Qin Fei’s voice remained on the terminal: “Mr. Programmer, did something happen?”

The programmer immediately lunged at the screen to check the character’s real intimacy code.

The character immediately tried to launch a self-destruct program. He realized too late that there was no such function.