Want to be human, but cube-like

An inanimate object?

Things that have no value can be destroyed?

The white-haired girl, who had been called to a halt, stopped in her tracks.

Alex turned her head and looked at Xiangzi with a puzzled expression.

"Ah."

Without any attempt to hide it, she nodded slightly in response.

"Aside from enemies, the only humanoid creatures I know that can be communicated with are villagers or story NPCs."

Before Xiangzi could develop a sense of resistance and fear towards Alex, the latter began to explain to her.

"At that time, I didn't know of any other words besides these two creatures that could be used to describe you or the other people in the outside world."

In her mind, there was almost never any other being with whom she could communicate.

All I have left is my own mother.

It was precisely through Xiangzi's presence, sensing a similarity to her manipulator—a freedom unbound by any fixed logical rules—that Alex came to understand the people of this world.

It is a fact that it is neither a villager nor an NPC.

"But after that, it was you, Xiangzi, who told me that the people in that world were all ordinary humans."

She smiled and gently dispelled Xiangzi's unease.

“You are completely different from the villagers of this world.”

Alex tilted her head slightly, her loose hair fluttering in the wind.

“You are living very freely.”

A gentle breeze carried these words, brimming with envy, to Xiangzi's ears, causing her to pause slightly in surprise.

"..."

After a moment of silence, Xiangzi took a few steps forward and followed behind Alex.

“Alex, were all the people you’ve ever met before... villagers?”

Gradually, Xiangzi calmed down. She carefully considered her words and asked softly.

Based on Alex's actions just now, she realized that the so-called villagers were less like people and more like machines with pre-programmed behavior logic.

It is neither a human being with flesh and blood, nor an alien creature that can communicate.

Alex is right; there's no need to pour emotions into such a machine.

But she isn't necessarily entirely correct.

What Xiangzi wants to know now is what kind of upbringing Alex had.

In her view, this way of looking at things is clearly somewhat distorted.

"Hmm... almost."

Seeing that the other party seemed to have stopped dwelling on what had just happened, Alex turned around and continued leading the villagers behind her toward the small single rooms.

“Apart from my mother, all the creatures I’ve ever seen are like this, following a specific logic of behavior, without any self-will.”

As she spoke, she chuckled softly.

"Speaking of which, Xiangzi, you are the first person I've ever met who I can communicate with normally."

There was a hint of sadness in her words that even Alex herself couldn't perceive.

Ling Xiangzi lowered his eyes.

"And what about your mother?"

she asked softly.

"...Mom...she's always talking to herself, she hardly ever talks to me, and I don't know what she's thinking."

After recalling for a moment, Alex slowly spoke.

Almost?

No, I've never spoken to Alex.

Even the term "Mom" was just something Alex called out to herself.

Recalling every little detail of the past, her mood became slightly downcast.

"..."

Xiangzi raised his eyes in surprise, staring at the back of her walking ahead. After thinking for a long time, he fell silent.

In Alex's previous account, her mother was described as someone who loved her very much, who would travel with her, help her build houses, and make new clothes for her. Alex herself was also very dependent on her mother.

But at this moment, hearing Alex's slightly sad voice, Xiangzi's impression of her mother was refreshed once again.

Is it a tyrannical and domineering god who seems to love his daughter very much but never communicates with her?

Recalling what Alex had once said about her mother's abilities being more exaggerated than those of the Creator, Xiangzi slightly altered her shallow impression of this mother she had never met.

Naturally, she also began to understand, to some extent, why Alex had such a distorted worldview.

If from the moment she was born, no one could communicate with her, and even with her own mother, they were on completely incomprehensible, different levels of communication.

All the creatures they encountered were the cattle and sheep that they couldn't communicate with, or the villagers in front of them who were like machines, or even the monsters with ferocious faces that could only roar.

"call……"

She lowered her head and let out a sigh of frustration.

Just thinking about it for a moment, Xiangzi could already feel the suffocating oppression.

How did Alex grow into the gentle, innocent, and pitiful person she is today?

It's almost a miracle that she wasn't twisted into that kind of wanton and cold-blooded villain.

Unconsciously, Xiangzi suddenly felt a strong urge to protect him.

She instinctively took two steps forward and gently grasped Eric's small hand hanging by her side.

"Xiangzi?"

As Alex pondered which single room to put the villager in, she turned around in confusion and looked down at Xiangzi.

“Alex…”

With slightly reddened eyes, Xiangzi raised his head and pursed his lips.

She suddenly felt a very strong sense of empathy for Alex.

"Eh?"

Seeing Xiangzi's appearance, Alex was at a loss for what to do.

She couldn't understand at all. They were just having a normal chat and their emotions were very stable. How could he suddenly look like he was about to cry?

"You must love this world!"

With great seriousness, Xiangzi stared intently into Alex's eyes, meeting her gaze as she looked on in bewilderment.

"I will absolutely, absolutely make you understand..."

Her tone was heavy, carrying intense emotion.

"Just how wonderful is this world, and the people around you!"

and so.

Please stop looking at all this with such cold eyes.

…………

P.S. Actually, Xiangzi still doesn't quite understand Alex; at this point, she's only moved by her own actions.

Sorry for the hour-late update. I went to watch other fan-made content to recoup some money, and I got so engrossed that I forgot the time, boohoo~

Volume 1: Chapter 123 This is a huge loss!

"Woo..."

Under the intense sunlight cast by that square sun, the blue-haired girl with pigtails squatted on the ground, covering her burning face with her hands, and let out a cry of shame and annoyance.

She was just there, talking to herself!

Just recalling the bewildered look in Alex's eyes when she heard those heartfelt words, Xiangzi felt her brain tremble.

Doesn't this completely fail to convey one's feelings?

Alex didn't understand what she was saying at all, and in the end, she just smiled indulgently and nodded casually as a response.

It's better to just pretend you didn't hear it!

Being brushed off by Alex's expression, which was as if she were watching a child playing around with feigned seriousness, Xiangzi, who hadn't initially thought there was anything wrong with what she had said, suddenly found herself overwhelmed by feelings of shame.

I glanced up furtively at the small cubicle where they were figuring out how to cram the villagers into.

While inside, Xiangzi was also able to get Alex out, so he puffed out his cheeks.

"call……"

After a moment, she slowly exhaled and stood up.

Although he felt somewhat ashamed of the conversation he had just had, Xiangzi did not regret his decision.

Call her nosy or arrogant, Xiangzi genuinely felt that Alex needed her help.

Or rather, she had to help Alex.

This is no longer the world that Alex used to travel to.

She wanted Alex to experience more of the beauty of this world and understand that every person and every living being in this world has their own shining qualities.

Before that, she needed to understand Alex more and experience her feelings more deeply.

"That would be good."

The voice beside him woke Xiangzi from his deep thoughts.

She looked up.

Alex had already crammed that villager into a small private room; no one knew how she had managed it.

The small room was completely enclosed, with only a small opening at the front, just large enough for the villagers to enter and exit. In Xiangzi's opinion, it was more like an upright coffin than a small room.

A coffin with the lid not closed.

"clatter!"

Then, Alex took out a block she had prepared beforehand from her backpack and placed it in the lower square of the opening, leaving the villagers just enough space to expose their upper bodies and breathe.

Now, it should be said that it is a coffin standing upright, with only the lower half of the body covered.

"That way, it won't run around everywhere."

"Nod in satisfaction," Alex said.

What is this cube?

After glancing at the block that Alex had used to block the entrance and prevent the villagers from moving it freely, Xiangzi stepped forward and asked curiously.

"This is a loom, a work block used to help villagers become shepherds; it can also be called a work station."

Alex gently patted the loom and explained.

She had prepared this thing long ago. It is one of the easiest work blocks to make in this world. There are materials available to make it now, and it is useful to her. Other works include the grinding wheel needed for the weaponsmith job change to trade minerals, the compost bin needed for the farmer job change to trade various crops, and the smokehouse needed for the butcher job change to trade animal meat.

Finally, there's a stonemason who trades various rocks, allowing her to obtain the basic recipe for activating the mechanical power module from andesite. The stonemason's stone-cutting machine is the most expensive of these, requiring a piece of iron to craft.

The other villager professions described in the quest log all seem to have changed their crafting recipes. Alex had seen them in the recipe book, and they all require a currency she had never seen before, as well as an item called a license.

She did know about the license, but it wasn't the kind of certificate or document that came with her burger shop. It was actually explained at the very beginning of the mission statement that a piece of paper needed to be placed on the counter to convert into a license.

This appears to be a unique crafting material in this Skyblock world, capable of being upgraded from copper quality all the way up to Nether Alloy. Each of the first three levels can be used to unlock a new stage of work blocks, allowing Alex to help villagers transition to other professions that offer a wider variety of traded food items.

These were the three people she had seen in the mission book before: the fisherman, the cartographer, and the priest.