Am I the only one streaming Sword Art Online on the entire internet?

"Something feels off, but never mind, I've completely forgotten how to get to your house..." Kirito muttered to himself, turning on Augma's navigation and entering Mo Yulan's address. "I have this feeling you're avoiding Mo-ge, is it just my imagination?"

"It's not my imagination, Uncle Kirito." Ivy thought to herself, but she certainly wouldn't say it aloud. What was actually in her bag wasn't what she bought at the convention, but rather doujinshi she hadn't sold yet. As for the contents of the doujinshi… well… you know.

"That's probably just your imagination. How could Ivy Xin possibly be hiding from Dad?" Ivy Xin said with a straight face, then quickly changed the subject. "But Uncle Kirito looked so preoccupied just now, what happened?"

"It's nothing, I just suddenly felt envious of your old man." Kirito seemed to have aged considerably from being called "uncle" by Ivy Xin, and his voice and manner of speaking began to lean towards that of an older man. "Not only is he strong in the game, but he's also this amazing in real life."

"Well... you've only seen part of it, Uncle Kirito. Great strength comes with danger. And Ivy probably knows what you're worried about, but you just need to keep going along your path. Your strength is games, so just find a way to make the most of that."

287. What do I do if my sketchbook of my dad's drawings is discovered? Waiting for an answer online.

"That's enough... Hmm, Daddy's not back yet, safe!"

Aivixin directed Kirito to stop in front of the apartment building, then glanced at her own window. The lights were still off, meaning Mo Yulan and You Na hadn't returned home yet. She breathed a sigh of relief, got off the back of Kirito's motorcycle, pulled the handbag hanging on the handlebars down and hugged it to her chest, then waved to Kirito.

"See you next time, Kirito-san. Thank you."

"Just call me Kirito or Kirigaya-kun. If you call me uncle, it makes me sound really old." Kirito waved helplessly, then turned around and drove off. "See you next time, little Ivy."

Aiweixin watched Kirito leave, then glanced around furtively, even activating her built-in radar to confirm that Mo Yulan wasn't nearby. She quickly pulled her keys from her purse and dashed into the elevator. The elevator soon stopped on her floor. She jogged a few steps out, hurriedly opened her door, and was met with an unbelievable sight.

There was nothing unbelievable about it; it was just that Mo Yulan and You Na had actually returned a while ago but hadn't turned on the lights. Mo Yulan had only wanted to create a romantic atmosphere to launch a surprise attack, but just as he was about to take the initiative to kiss her, Ai Weixin suddenly opened the door.

"Ah... good evening, you're back quite early. I thought you were staying at Vector's." Mo Yulan turned her head, then looked curiously at Aiweixin's bag... at the little bit peeking out, and then frowned. "Wait, Aiweixin, can I see that bag?"

"Oh...it's already quite late. Ivy has made plans to go shopping with Vivi tomorrow, so I'm going back to sleep now." Ivy hurriedly glanced down at the bag in her hand, then put back the doujinshi that had somehow ended up facing vertically, with the title "[C128 Prince Solin, will you still taste me tonight?]" still showing. "Hmm, there's nothing worth worrying about."

"No, no, no, Ivy, give me that bag..."

Mo Yulan turned around and looked at Ai Weixin's clumsy attempt to cover up her misunderstanding, feeling a mix of amusement and exasperation. He didn't mind that his eldest daughter had bought some R18 doujinshi at the anime convention—things that seemed unsuitable for the mental and physical health of teenagers. After all, he had seen plenty of those kinds of things back in the day, but the titles made him feel utterly disgusted. You, on the other hand, was completely watching the spectacle. She even wanted to ask Ai Weixin for a copy to try out, to experience the legendary feeling of "I've seen your wife's doujinshi, but you're not the main character"... But saying that still felt a little strange.

"Major crisis! Ivy needs to think of a solution now... Shouldn't we just destroy the evidence?"

Aiweixin's thoughts suddenly took a dangerous turn, but before she could put them into practice, Mo Yulan suddenly pulled a book out of her handbag. He glanced at the cover and then saw himself on it, dressed in revealing and embarrassing clothing... His face suddenly turned as red as if steam were rising from it.

"What... what is this?" Mo Yulan's tone suddenly became flustered. After all, it was too exciting to see her own copy of her own work, especially for someone whose real personality was already quite timid.

"Oh my, you're blushing! Let me see!" You Na watched the whole thing from the side, but to her, the alluring Mo Yu Lan in front of her was clearly more attractive than asking Ai Wei Xin what was going on.

Aiweixin, who had been at a loss for what to do, was immediately saved when she saw this scene. Taking advantage of her father's inattention, she subtly snatched the notebook from her father's hands, who was being chuckled at by Yuna, and ran back to her small room with her handbag as if fleeing. She quickly closed the door and locked it twice.

She leaned against the door, listening to shouts of "Yuna, no! Yuna, no!" coming from outside, and silently breathed a sigh of relief.

"The crisis isn't over yet, use your clever little brain to think of a solution, Aiweixin!" Aiweixin muttered to herself, squatting behind the door. "If things continue like this, when Dad comes in and asks Aiweixin, won't she still have to kneel down? Calm down, Aiweixin, you're not fighting alone..."

Thinking this, she opened her Twitter page on Augma. Just as she was about to send a message, she thought, "What if my dad follows me on Twitter?" and quickly went back. After hesitating for a long time, she finally dialed Vector's number.

Good evening, Vivi. Are you still recovering?

"Yes, I haven't been discharged from the hospital yet... Is there anything wrong? Miss Ivy, who's disturbing my sleep so late at night." Vector's weak and emotionless voice came from the other end of the line.

It was definitely Vivi that Aiweixin knew; it wasn't someone impersonating her, she thought.

"Don't be afraid of what Ivy is going to say."

"I'm an elite member of the Lone Mage squad, we're not afraid... You're calling me so late at night just to make a joke? You should just hang up now, I'm going to sleep."

"No, no, no... Actually, it's because he found out about the sketchbook that Ivy Xin was drawing in, but for some reason, he hasn't come after me yet. What should Ivy Xin do?" When Ivy Xin heard that Vector was really about to hang up, she quickly got to the point.

"Would it kill you to use first-person narration, Ivy? It's so hard to understand you every time you speak... Do you have Mr. Mo's notebook? Bring it to me next time you visit, let's see it tomorrow, it's decided." Vector's voice carried a hint of curiosity.

“I'll say it again! I'm not joking!” Ivy shouted anxiously. “And Ivy doesn't use the first person just because it's a habit. This isn't the time to worry about such details!”

"Right, right... You didn't just write A.vacyn's name directly in the author's column, did you? If not, when he asks you, just say you saw it at a comic convention and bought it out of curiosity. Anyway, he won't know it was drawn by you."

"But Ivy has a lot of copies here, about ten or so that haven't been sold."

"Then just say you really like your dad so you bought a lot of books. Do I need to teach you that? I think you're pretty smart."

"But Avacyn's signature is indeed A.vacyn!"

There was a sudden silence on the other end of the phone. Aivisin didn't know what to say, and so an awkward silence ensued.

“…That’s hopeless, goodbye.” Vector said and hung up the phone. As Ivy listened to the busy signal and was about to try someone else, she heard a knock on the door that sounded like a midnight horror to her.

“Ivy, I think we should have a talk.”

288. On how a daughter can fool a doting father.

“Ivy, I think we should have a talk.”

As Mo Yulan said this, she knocked on the door again. However, Ai Weixin decisively chose to play dead at this moment. She quickly pounced on the bed, covered her head with the quilt, and pretended that she was already asleep. Then she took out a slightly more portable device and dialed Vector's number again.

"Heh...you...Ai! Wei! Xin! Are you ever going to stop?" Vector replied angrily, "A patient's sleep time is very precious, you know?"

“But you answered the phone so quickly, I’m sure you were on your phone before bed, Vivi.” Ivi retorted, not to be outdone, then suddenly realized that she was the one who needed her help. “Let’s not talk about that now, Dad’s knocking on the door, what do we do?”

“What can I possibly suggest? If you ask me, just accept it. Your dad probably won’t do anything to you anyway.” Vector thought for a moment, but in the end, this was the only advice he could offer. “You can’t really get any useful advice from me. If this happened to me… he wouldn’t dare say anything, since I’m in charge of our operating funds.”

"Avixin, come out! Daddy promises not to scold you! Really!" Mo Yulan thought Aivixin had jumped off the building because there was no movement from this side, and his voice outside became anxious as he called out... Obviously, he forgot that Aivixin, who was equipped with the electronic angel module, would be fine even if she jumped.

Ivy put her phone aside without hanging up. She tiptoed out of bed, moved slowly to the door, and gently opened it a crack. Vector, seeing the call was still on, didn't hang up either, but instead listened to the commotion. After all, for a patient like her who had been a couch potato in her hospital room for over three months, even this kind of thing was enough to provide some entertainment.

"Good evening, Dad..." Ai Weixin looked at Mo Yulan nervously, still a little flustered, although she knew that her loving father wouldn't do anything to her. "Um... Dad, please let me explain..."

"Oh? It's alright, Aiweixin. I'll give you a chance to explain." Mo Yulan sat down next to Aiweixin, still smiling, though Aiweixin found it still quite terrifying. "Well... of course, this explanation refers to explaining why you drew these things. Don't say you didn't draw them~ I know this must be my precious daughter's work, not only because of the signature, but also because of the style."

Ivy thought that Vector's earlier suggestion of denying it outright wouldn't work, because it seemed her lovely father had already decided it was her masterpiece, and arguing would be useless. She quickly thought things through, her mind racing, and then struck what she thought was a very composed pose, her tone becoming serious.

“This actually relates to Ivy’s way of thinking, or rather, her way of calculating. The AI ​​derived from the Cardinal system didn’t have high intelligence from the start; it utilizes a whole learning system, which includes not only mental aspects but also knowledge.” She roughly knew that Mo Yulan had almost no understanding of her own existence, so she boldly began to talk nonsense with a straight face. “This system largely depends on the feedback from people around her to certain things. Ivy can only effectively improve her thinking patterns based on this feedback, so Ivy needs to use things she tries to create to collect this feedback.”

She could tell that Mo Yulan was completely taken aback by her explanation, because he didn't know what kind of thinking mechanism an AI like Aiweixin had, and no one had ever told him, so naturally he just believed whatever Aiweixin said. However, Vector on the other end of the phone knew, but her complaints obviously couldn't reach Mo Yulan, because Aiweixin wasn't amplifying her voice.

"Little angel, you really dare to say that... You actually believe that?"

"Dad, look, since Ivy returned to reality, she's become noticeably more mature than she was in SAO. This is because she's received feedback from more people. After all, there were only ten thousand people in SAO at most, and when Ivy was with you, there were only seven thousand left. And Ivy could only interact with less than a thousand people." Seeing that Mo Yulan was clearly about to be completely fooled, Ivy quickly pressed her advantage, continuing, "So drawing doujinshi... is just collecting feedback from the otaku who read them. Besides, Ivy's knowledge in this area is almost nonexistent, so I think it's a very necessary thing. And of course, there's the most important point..."

As Aiweixin spoke, her eyes suddenly became pitiful, and her crimson eyes seemed to glisten with tears.

“Dad hasn’t spoken to Ivy in a long time. Ivy knows Dad is busy, so this is the only way... It’s like Dad is with me, isn’t it?”

"Wow, who are you calling a shut-in, my little angel? Does reading doujinshi make you a shut-in? What am I then? Is it really necessary for an AI to learn all that nonsense... And why are you so good at being cute? Are you really taking advantage of this guy's doting fatherly nature?"

This was still Vector's吐槽 (tu cao, a Chinese internet slang term for sarcastic or witty remarks), and of course, Mo Yulan still couldn't hear it. He gently stroked Aiweixin's silky silver hair, his eyes filled with tenderness, and his tone softened considerably.

“It’s okay, Ivy, Dad just said he won’t blame you. If you feel it’s necessary, it’s really fine.” He sighed, then got up from the bed. “Yes, Dad hasn’t spent much time with you in a long time. Dad will try to make time for you in the future, okay?”

"Really, Daddy?" Aiweixin looked up in surprise, then threw herself into Mo Yulan's arms, rubbing against his chest. "Aiweixin knew Daddy was the best to me! I love Daddy the most!"

"My goodness, Mr. Tianmo, you actually believed that... I must say, you truly are the seasoned daughter-obsessed man I know! And Aiweixin, if you really love your father the most, why don't you just change the protagonist of the doujinshi to yourself? That's amazing, I should learn from that someday... Damn it, what's the point of me learning this? To act cute with that embarrassing thing? Sorry, I can't do that!"

289. The Weapon Master Returns to the World?

"Vivi, aren't you asleep yet, it's so late?"

Chu Ziyu swaggered into the ward and sat down on a chair next to Vector's bed, watching with interest as she held up her phone and complained about Ai Weixin.

“If that idiot hadn’t called me twice, I would have been asleep already,” Vector replied irritably. “And…it sounds like you’ve got it sorted out on your end?”

"Yes! Ivy is a genius!" Ivy's tone was quite excited, seemingly tinged with the joy of being a queen. "And we don't have to worry about her anymore!"

In fact, since Mo Yulan had to go back to stream "Super Dimension Fantasy World" that night, he didn't chat with Ai Weixin for too long. Ai Weixin knew that Vector was still on the phone with her, so she didn't try to keep Mo Yulan. Instead, she acted like a "thoughtful and obedient child" and saw her father off.

“That’s what you call, the longer you spend with Ivy, the more you feel like you’ve become a吐槽 (tu cao, meaning to criticize or ridicule) character,” Vector shrugged, explaining to Chu Ziyu. “Also, take your hand off my head, and the reason you suddenly came to see me is probably…”

"Is it wrong for me to worry about my subordinates?" Chu Ziyu said righteously. However, Vector had already seen through his true colors beneath that righteous expression and calmly stuffed his phone under his pillow.

"Then you should leave first, don't disturb my sleep. And I remember that the operating funds for this month were transferred to you two days ago, don't tell me you've spent them all so quickly."

"I... okay, Vivi, goodnight." Chu Ziyu's outstretched right hand awkwardly froze in mid-air, then he gave an awkward laugh, and finally awkwardly walked out, muttering as he left, "Ah, now Vivi has a girlfriend to support and doesn't care about her own Commander anymore..."

"Wow, I don't care if you die. You don't even keep track of how much money you've spent. If you keep doing whatever you want, you'll probably be living on instant noodles every day in the hospital." Vector sighed and rubbed her forehead. She was reflecting on why she was always surrounded by such a mismatched bunch of people. In comparison, the little angel at least had the advantage of being cute. "Well, Vivienne, I'm going to sleep now. Goodnight."

"Okay, goodnight Vivi. I'll be waiting for you to be discharged from the hospital so we can go shopping together."

Ivy spoke softly, as if afraid of disturbing Vector's sleep again. She hung up the phone, lay quietly on her side by the bed, and fiddled with her phone idly. After a while, she put the phone back on the table, closed her eyes with anticipation for tomorrow, a faint smile still lingering on her lips.

Meanwhile, just across the wall... or rather, in the virtual world. Solin stared at the mirror in front of him, forcibly resisting the urge to delete his character, though his eyebrows kept twitching.

"I'll carry you guys! How am I supposed to play if it's always like this?" he shouted in a helpless rage, frantically dragging every scroll bar he could see to adjust his character's appearance. However, his character remained unchanged, still the cute character from GGO who was always getting "Phase Rush" or "Shoot" comments.

This has to be attributed to certain systems targeting him, at least that's what he thinks. Because he had seen Kirito's character before—in this game, he had become a particularly rugged and muscular man, which in a sense was what he wanted.

"Damn, they won't let me choose randomly either. Oh well, I guess I'll just leave it like this." After studying it for a while, Solin finally gave up on re-customizing his character's appearance and clicked the next arrow button. The next step was setting up the character's skill tree. In the gold edition he purchased, the official version provided five different pre-built skill trees, allowing players to modify them. However, he had already conceived of something, or rather, thought of a possibility, so he directly clicked the "Customize" button.

Honestly, it's better to use a pre-set skill tree and then adjust it; otherwise, it feels like we'll just be wasting our time.

Let's make a bet: how many levels can Uncle Sue survive using his own skill tree?

Why are you all so serious? All I want to do right now is shoot!

[You're not alone upstairs, I want to shoot too]

[Shoot and Destroy +1]

"Come on, friends who want to shoot it all down, hold on a minute. Let's take a look first. The first thing you need to do here is choose your race, and different races will have different talents and specializations. This is quite scientific. I just checked, and there is no situation in this game where a certain race is definitely not allowed to develop in a certain direction. It's just that most people will choose a character development method that plays to their strengths and avoids their weaknesses."

As Sorin explained, he scrolled down the list of selectable races. The game offers a wide variety of races, mostly humanoid or humanoid, but also provides options for players who prefer unique experiences, such as the Fragmented Demon with its bizarre character designs.

Finding a suitable race for his build from so many races was indeed a complicated matter. After searching for a while, he hovered his cursor over the portrait of the Kora race next to the vampires.

"To be honest, this vampire has attracted me, but the weakness of this race is quite obvious. In sunny weather, all of their stats drop by 20%. If you've watched any Arena videos, you'll see that most of the Arena maps are sunny. To put it bluntly, if you use a vampire in the Arena, you'll likely get hit with a 20% damage reduction, which is fatal."

Solin's ultimate decision to play this game was largely driven by his desire to challenge the Yuuki, and a race inherently disadvantaged in the arena was clearly out of the question. He coughed twice, then zoomed in on his Koru form and continued his explanation.

"Let me give you a quick introduction. The Kor is a race from Magic: The Gathering, initially appearing in the Tempest environment, but their homeland is actually Zendikar. They can wield any weapon with ease, and this characteristic is reflected in the game. Of course, by now, you should already know what I'm going to do."

So, is it the weapon master making a comeback?

[And this game even has a forced Hardcore mode, is this a nostalgic return to SAO?]

[He's here! The weapons mastermind has arrived!]

290. Play the game with your heart, and balance with your feet.