Alice in the Land of Steam

Is Chapter 1200 repaired?

Surprisingly, Alice's room is quite tidy, not as messy as expected, probably because the landlady helps clean it every day. Because the genius player likes to sit on the bed to play games, and she likes to eat snacks while playing games, in order to correct this bad habit, the landlady specially put a desk near the window for this guy who doesn't like reading. On the desk are her game consoles, cassettes and other messy things. Don't expect her to clean up, just don't throw them around.

However, Alice didn't seem to like using this desk very much. The last time Lingge entered this room, the girl was sitting on the floor beside the desk, trying to put the broken game console back together. Now, the silver cubes were randomly scattered on the table, and a lantern was burning next to it. The flickering sparks shone through the mesh grille, casting a soft glow and providing precious light for the dim room.

Alice followed the young man reluctantly, muttering, "What on earth do you want to do by entering a girl's room so late at night?"

"Nothing."

Ling Ge thought, can't I go into a girl's room in the middle of the night? I've been to Avella's room many times, so it's nothing special. But what he thought and what he said were two different things. He said calmly, "I just came to confirm whether you really gave up on repairing the game console."

"There's no need for me to lie to you." The genius player glanced at him.

"That won't do." The young man said, "We still have to fix it."

He walked to the desk, picked up a small silver cube, put it in front of his eyes and looked at it carefully for a while, then said, "If you don't want to repair it, why not give it to me?"

"Why?" Alice was puzzled. She felt that Ling'er's behavior was inconsistent. "Weren't you the one who wanted me to give up the most before, Ling'er? It's strange that you suddenly say such things now..."

"I don't want you to give up, I just want you to face reality... Never mind, this explanation doesn't seem right, just think of it as a sudden change of heart."

"It's really strange. I can't understand it."

Alice shook her head. How could someone change his mind so quickly, and on such an important matter, he was inconsistent and ambiguous. If the genius player didn't know the character of this young man, he might have thought he was teasing him.

"Can't understand? Then don't try to understand. Action is always more important than thinking. Isn't that the case for you, Alice? So why not start taking action, together with me?" The young man pointed to the scattered game console fragments on the table, and the meaning he wanted to convey was already very clear.

Alice replied listlessly, "Forget it. There's no point in fixing it anyway. I advise you not to waste your energy, Lingge."

The one who wanted her to give up before now began to persuade her, and the one who was stubborn before now began to give up. The positions and attitudes of the two people changed surprisingly at this time, and the deep-seated reasons behind this are actually worth thinking about. The young man could probably understand Alice's negative attitude, because of the possibility that Ovira raised at the dinner table, if the kingship of Tiantis was to deny fantasy and seal the ability of the game console, then it would be meaningless to repair it.

However, Lingge also had reasons to say this. First of all, although Olvera's guess made sense, it was just a guess after all, and it might not be the fact. Secondly, according to Themis in the celestial realm, the authority between the young royal powers should be equal. No matter how targeted the royal power of Tiantis was, it was impossible to completely seal Alice's royal power. If she could do it, they would not have to watch Alice activate the cartridge on the Indorsis Bridge. Finally, whether repairing the game console was meaningful or not did not essentially depend on any external factors, but only on Alice's own opinion.

If she only wanted a weapon to take revenge on Tiantis, the Chaos Witches, and even the entire Witch Society, then a game console that cannot be used in combat has indeed lost its value; but is this really the case? For today's talented players, have games and their meanings really fallen into the abyss of hatred and disgust because of the departure of that girl?

"I don't think so."

The young man turned around and said to Alice, "There is nothing meaningless in this world. It's just that you have chosen to give up before you realize the deep meaning of it. Just like us simply discussing the meaning here is also meaningless. Only by taking action can you understand what you really want. However, what I said may confuse you. After all, discussing life and meaning is something that only philosophers and poets do. In this case, let me give you a meaningful reason - tomorrow is Kadora's baptism ceremony. Metien has been looking forward to it for a long time, and I think those children are also looking forward to it."

"So what?" Alice didn't quite understand what Lingge wanted to express, and tilted her head.

"So, didn't they say that they hope to play the game you made one day, Alice?" The young man looked deeply at the genius player and saw the dazed expression on her face. Obviously, she had never thought about this, and perhaps she didn't take the words of those children to heart. Because recently, her mind was always occupied by other things, so she had no time to care about the simplest problems around her.

However, do not live for something as far away as revenge. It may not come until a year, ten years, or even longer. People can wait that long, but emotions will always cool down. Therefore, you must not pour those still hot emotions into something that is extremely far away, but live for tomorrow, for a group of precocious, strong, yet fragile children, and the sincere smiles on their faces when they realize their wishes.

"I think," Ling Ge retracted his gaze, picked up the game console fragments on the table again, and said while trying to put them together, "this is the greatest significance of this matter."

Alice looked at Lingge, speechless for a moment.

She recalled that she could say such words calmly in the past, but for her, it was already a very vague impression, so vague that when she thought about it seriously, she had the illusion for a moment, "Is that really me?" When a person begins to doubt her past, does it mean that she is the one who is most trapped in the past?
Alice couldn't explain it. She felt inexplicably irritated and had no interest in Ling's proposal. She waved her hands randomly to dispel the strange thoughts in her mind. Then the genius player walked to the bed, looked up and fell down, staring at the blank ceiling, and muttered casually: "Whatever you want, I won't do it anyway, I'm so tired..."

The last two words were also her truest voice. She really felt very tired. It seemed that everything happening around her was chasing this girl, making her exhausted to deal with it.

"If you are tired, take a good rest."

Lingge replied, not changing his mind because of Alice's resistance. He even sat down at the desk, as if he was going to assemble the game console tonight. Alice didn't chase him away, but just lay on the bed in a daze, not knowing what she was thinking. The room fell into silence for a while, with only the sound of the young man fiddling with the game console fragments, accompanied by the lonely cries of night crows or giant owls in the distant forest. This atmosphere unique to the late night can easily make people feel scared, and it also carries a kind of incredible mystery, making people slow down their heartbeats and breathing, for fear of disturbing someone.

Alice lay in bed, unable to help wondering, will Lingge succeed? Of course it is impossible, because I have always failed and never succeeded. If according to the young man's speculation, the so-called game console is really a material form of fantasy kingship, then theoretically only I should be able to fix it. But this is based on rational judgment, so from an emotional point of view, do I hope Lingge can succeed?

She should have answered without hesitation, yes, if it wasn't for fixing the game console, why would she be so stubborn, so insistent, and so embarrassed to the point of worrying everyone. But what surprised or frightened the genius gamer was that she found that she couldn't give a decisive answer as she imagined. She was more worried about Ling's attitude than she was afraid that the game console couldn't be fixed, because if it wasn't her but Ling who fixed the game console, did it mean... that she really lacked something?
Something she had been unwilling to admit or face.

The girl stared at the ceiling blankly, and seemed to hear the sound of sand falling from the hourglass, ticking, every minute, every second, every moment, was passing. It was more like a torment for her, just like prisoners are often most desperate not when they are taken to the execution ground, but when they are waiting for the judge to sentence them.

Ling is not the judge, he is the crime itself.

As we all know, before the formal execution, every criminal will try his best to exonerate himself, and this one is no exception.

Alice suddenly turned over, but Lingge remained indifferent. He was trying to embed a piece of debris into its original position; Alice made an ambiguous hum from her nostrils, but Lingge seemed not to hear it. He noticed that the joints between the fragments were a little loose and was thinking about how to fix them; until finally, Alice could not bear it anymore. She sat up suddenly from the bed and decided to use a perfect excuse to drive Lingge out: How could he stay in a girl's room in the middle of the night?
She believed that this reason was absolutely effective. If it was ineffective, she could just bring up Saint Xia Liya as well. As long as she said to Ling Ge, "If you don't leave, I will tell Xiao Xia," he should give up, right?

However, before the genius player could put this idea into action, a voice suddenly came from the direction of the desk: "Ah, it seems to be done?"

"Uh!"

Alice choked on the words she hadn't spoken yet. After she realized what was happening, she curled her lips subconsciously, a little suspicious: "What a clumsy lie, who are you kidding?"

I tried to fix the game console for half a month but failed, but you did it in just over an hour on a whim? There should be a limit to joking...

"Really." Ling Ge said seriously, "If you don't believe me, come and see."

Although she still suspected that Lingge was deceiving her, an incredible sense of mission or fear (these two are not contradictory and even coexist perfectly in the girl) drove Alice to turn her head and look at the young man.

Then, I saw the SLP game console in his hand.

The silver-white cube, about the size of a palm, has a metallic texture, and its edges and corners are cold and profound. It is full of a technological beauty that is difficult to achieve with the industrial level of this era. There is not even a trace of splicing on the cold and smooth surface. It looks like a completely whole thing. It is hard to imagine that not long ago, it was just a pile of fragments scattered on the desk.

Alice was stunned for a moment.

She still remembered that every time she tried to put the game console together, it would fall apart again and was difficult to put back together.

But the silver cube in Linger's hand was so stable that there was no sign of disintegration.

Did he really... succeed?

The genius player felt absurd and aggrieved, surprised and full of irony. He had worked day and night to avenge Tiantis and the Witch Society, but it had no effect at all. Linger repaired the game console in order to let a group of children experience the fun of the game, but he succeeded at once. What was his stubbornness and persistence all along? Was it just a joke? Could it be that only by letting go of hatred and believing in love and bond can we gain its recognition? But why is revenge not allowed? Obviously the final result is the same, and they all need to fight Tiantis and the Witch Society. In this case, is it wrong for him to choose to fight the witch for revenge for Themis in the heaven?

Of course, when Alice thought this, she seemed to have forgotten that a long time ago, or not long ago, the person who believed most in the words "love and bond" was actually her.

Although people often abandon many things when they grow up, looking back, is that really growth?
Alice never thought about it.

Even the thought of grievance and irony only flashed through her mind. She quickly came to her senses, jumped off the bed, rushed to Ling Ge, and took the game console from his hand without saying a word, saying anxiously: "Is it really fixed? Let me see!"

Ling did not stop her. He let go and let Alice take the game console.

However, the look in his eyes when he looked at the girl was still so complicated and difficult to describe.

Give me some meow