Great, we're doomed now!

Speaking of which, although those with chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) may seem eccentric, they are also the group least likely to develop faith...

"I sense that you are in a great hurry right now. What happened? You have changed a lot since the Cosmic Demon incident... I can feel it."

Liuli looked at him with concern: "Can't even I share your burden?"

Ye Shou paused for a moment, then a gentle smile appeared on his lips: "It's not that I deliberately kept it from you, it's just that I have too many things on my mind and can't sort them out right now. I'll tell you slowly later."

—The first thing he did upon returning was to promote the "demystification of faith" movement!

Originally, to prevent the Kirieloids from taking advantage of the situation in the future, he had reminded the TPC to pay attention to guiding public opinion and to give [Bayeri] a proper name. However, this time the scope of the attack was expanded very abruptly, which is inconsistent with the basic principle of gradual progress.

Actually, there were some oversights, but the overwhelming advantage in resources and the power of discourse were used to suppress the minor issues.

The reason he unusually adopted a tough stance to push through the process... to be honest, he was genuinely "afraid."

Ye Shou's experiences in the ancient times thirty million years ago, especially the completely mutated doomsday believers in the ruins of R'lyeh, plunged him into deep unease:

It's an invisible fear, unlike monsters that can be seen with the naked eye. It can't be overwhelmed by brute force alone. If you can't find a way to fight it, you might lose for no reason!

So many giants, including Tiga, watched helplessly as everything they were protecting was destroyed... How could this not serve as a wake-up call?

The reason why the ancient times developed to that point was not only because Gatanothor's evil was beyond imagination, but also because, although they were technologically advanced, they were essentially a religious society, with theological ideas deeply imprinted in everyone's minds.

Generally speaking, when people fall into despair, they instinctively seek something to rely on, which is not surprising. However, the ideological imprint of ancient civilizations made them behave in extreme ways when facing crises.

They possessed extraordinary courage and perseverance when fighting alongside giants, surpassing many intelligent races.

But once hope is not seen for a long time, and it is confirmed that their god (giant) cannot overcome the darkness, that courage collapses at an unimaginable speed... This is a common phenomenon in human history.

Ye Shou knew that it was impossible to develop everyone on Earth into absolute advocates of technology—that would only change the worship of God to the worship of science, and who knows, it might even create an "Om Messiah".

What he wants to do is to weaken people's "blind faith" in authority!

Dare to question, dare to explore, dare to accept!

Darkness and light are merely a conflict between different camps, not determined by fate, but by one's own efforts, just as myths are written by human hands!

Shaping this "shared understanding" is an almost impossible task, but fortunately, technology has greatly reduced the difficulty of spreading ideas, and young people are highly malleable.

"Then we can just have someone else in charge. Why do we have to come into the game ourselves?" Lucy walked over, clearly having heard Ye Shou's words as well.

Liuli nodded in agreement: as Ye Shou's "disciple", she was more interested in the game of capital than video games, and she didn't quite understand men's romance.

Ye Shou raised an eyebrow: "Precisely because we are getting busier and busier, we should cherish the opportunity, my dear ladies."

Oh, you mean the opportunity to spend time with me?

—The maid and Lucy couldn't help but be overjoyed, but they still maintained their composure on the surface.

Ye Shou smiled calmly:

He took time out of his schedule to play Ragnarok Online. Besides needing to relax and being extremely lacking in CG scenes with beautiful girls, which was a relatively minor reason, another very important reason was that he was short of money and needed to withdraw some of his "savings".

"My beloved," Ye Shou sighed softly, his eyes burning with passion, "How could I be without you by my side?"

Upon hearing this, Liuli felt a surge of sweetness in her heart, and cherry blossom petals fell onto her jade-like neck as she shyly lowered her head.

Lucy laughed heartily and took Ye Shou's arm, snuggling against him without hiding her joy, which made the maid frown slightly.

While gently patting Lucy's hand, Ye Shou's gaze fell on the maid... then he looked over her shoulder and towards a slightly farther distance, staring intently at a highly recognizable figure.

For a moment, I felt an almost unbearable thirst.

-

"Hey, don't push! Can't you see there's a dwarf player here?"

"Oh? Sorry!"

After being punched by someone who jumped up, the heavily armored warrior, who was as steadfast as a roly-poly toy, quickly moved away, apologizing repeatedly, afraid of offending anyone else.

This game has extremely high requirements for "motion sensing". The closer the character model is to the real body shape, the higher the synchronization rate, and the smoother the movements will be. Therefore, most people honestly chose their own gender and roughly similar appearance.

(Actually, there have been comical incidents where people created characters of the opposite sex, only to find themselves unable to hold their urine, or experiencing what is known as "the greatest pain a man can ever feel.")

"Ah~"

Because he was already quite tall and strong, and the race he drew had some giant blood, he ended up looking similar to Hagrid from Harry Potter, making him quite conspicuous in front of the dungeon gate where crowds gathered.

The heavily armored warrior struggled to break through the encirclement and decided to wait his turn to enter the dungeon—he wasn't in a party, so he was free to do so.

The game was too realistic. You could feel "suffocated" even when breathing inside the helmet. Even if the character's stamina was high enough, it couldn't stop the discomfort. Helpless, the man had to give up the set bonus, take off the full-coverage helmet, and put on a lighter headscarf instead.

This is a reward item from a hidden quest. Although it's a single item, its attributes are quite good. It has the four Chinese characters "苍天乃死" (Cangtian Nai Si) on it, which looks particularly imposing.

—Professor Agasa plopped down, composed himself, and looked expectantly at the dungeon entrance.

Despite being fifty-one or fifty-two years old, he still loves new things, and his various inventions reveal his childlike heart. He is the purest scientist—conducting research to realize his beautiful dreams.

This wasn't his first time playing a full-dive game, but he'd only dabbled in most of them, since he was getting older and didn't have the energy to keep up...

It was quite unexpected that he was chosen for the closed beta test of "Ragnarok Online". After all, he had only casually drawn a gacha when the "Power Platform" went live, and the full set of equipment and the closed beta account were immediately available to him.

Driven by such enthusiasm for the operation, and also curious about the performance of the new technology, he came in and created a warrior character with maxed-out intelligence.

As he played through the game, he was truly amazed by the groundbreaking technology and had many inspirations. Now he was eager to see just how gorgeous the art style of the World Tree dungeon would be.

He's basically here for tourism.

Excuse me, excuse me.

A commotion broke out in front of the door, as if time was approaching and some people were already eager to squeeze to the front.

Hmm? That voice sounds familiar, it sounds like...

"not good!"

"oops!"

"Ah! My sword Eros is too long, I'm sorry!"

"Huh?! Hu ...

A startled, delicate voice rang out, and then, as if parted by waves, a figure was pushed out of the crowd, staggering and staggering.

It's heading right in Professor Agasa's direction!

The doctor instinctively stood up and reached out his hand; his large frame allowed him to support the other person comfortably.

She is very slender and light, with shoulders that are only about half the width of the doctor's character. Her shoulder-length blonde hair gives her a mature and capable look, and judging from her voice, she should be a woman of a certain age.

"Uh, are you alright, ma'am?"

"……call!"

The lady, who had managed to make the mage's robes look like aristocratic attire, breathed a sigh of relief, turned around, and gave Professor Agasa a slight bow: "Thank you, just now—"

They looked up and stared at each other, both stunned. Then, they looked bewildered and incredulous, their mouths slightly open, but they couldn't say a word.

A moment later:

""Who are you!""

The sounds overlapped, and the shoulder-length-haired woman covered her mouth, her eyes darting around, her heart churning like autumn water, unable to find peace.

The doctor became even more flustered, his mouth agape in a way that even looked somewhat comical, but he no longer cared about his image and just stared at the other person, seemingly unable to determine whether the scene was real or not.

This is a woman who is about fifty years old, slightly younger than the doctor. Judging from her appearance, she is of mixed race and looks only forty years old. Even though she is older, you can still see her former elegance and grace.

That's not the point. The doctor isn't a lecher; there's a pure, unwavering ideal in his heart—

But if the white moonlight appears before your eyes, it's hard to control yourself.

Isn't this also true for women with shoulder-length hair?

Although Professor Agasa's body had grown larger, his facial features and expression remained the same, gradually overlapping with the beautiful memories she cherished in her mind. Unconsciously, her eyes welled up with tears, and she even had an urge to shed them.

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry, I just couldn't control my hands!"

At this moment, someone ran out to apologize, holding an exaggeratedly long greatsword in his hand, which sounded like he accidentally hit someone while showing off his weapon.

When the person looked up, they exclaimed in surprise, "Ms. Fusae, it's you?"

“You are… ah, Kuze…” Fusae came to her senses, her reaction somewhat slow.

Ye Shou's gaze shifted to the little giant beside him, and he looked even more puzzled: "Professor Agasa? What a coincidence, you also play Ragnarok?"

"...Ah, yes, um."

Professor Agasa nodded, glancing at Ye Shou and then at Fusa. This exceptionally intelligent man's brain was momentarily overloaded, unsure which to process first.

"That... I mean, you..."

"Oh, you probably don't know each other yet."

When the two were unsure how to begin, Ye Shou walked over and introduced them on their behalf, much like a gentle breeze.

"Let me introduce you. This is Dr. Agasa, an elite scientist at TPC. Many inventions that have changed society today have Dr. Agasa's hard work in them. He is also one of the elders I respect the most."

However, because he lives alone most of the time, he doesn't have much control over his daily routine and diet, so TPC even provided him with a team of nutritionists.

"Oh~ Professor Agasa..." Fusae blinked, feeling a sense of relief, an indescribable feeling of happiness welled up inside her, and a gentle smile spread across her face.

"Long time no see."

"Long time no see?" Ye Shou feigned curiosity and then asked Professor Agasa, "Have you known each other for a long time? Am I being nosy?"

"Uh...it really has been a long time." Professor Agasa scratched his head, unusually a little shy, and lowered his head to avoid Fusae's gaze.

"That's really interesting. I thought you, Doctor, never had any luck with women. Turns out you know such an outstanding lady."

Ye Shou laughed heartily, "Fusa Campbell Kinoshita, she is the founder of the famous 'Fusa Fashion,' both a designer and a business owner. This time, 'Ragnarok' is launching a batch of peripheral accessories, so I specially created a guest account so that Ms. Fusa could personally experience the art style... Oh dear, I didn't expect such a coincidence!"

"It's quite a coincidence," Fusa thought to herself, momentarily dazed.

She only came in for work and inspection, but she never expected to meet her childhood "knight" again... This is more than just luck, it's practically a blessing from fate!

“Even my mother, who is extremely picky about fashion, said that only Ms. Fusa’s jewelry could truly impress her.”

By the way, Mother's favorite design... isn't it the classic 'ginkgo leaf'? She raved about this brooch, saying that only a 'true heart' could create such a gentle design.

“Ginkgo leaves…” Professor Agasa stared at her with wide eyes, and Fusae did the same. The two met eyes, subconsciously looked away, and then looked back, unable to help but laugh.