Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

Does that mean all the data, including program execution data, is concentrated on a single supercomputer?

Xiangzi opened the game thoughtfully.

After a period of white screen, the title "Once Upon a Time" appeared on the screen.

She breathed a sigh of relief and straightened her posture.

"It's about to begin."

The Lost Story: The Lost Child - Chapter 312 Link, Start!

Xiangzi opened the game, while Aiyin put aside her daily tasks and sat down to provide guidance.

She began to worry that her mentor, a complete novice gamer, might actually have never played a single game.

Indeed, she was right; Xiangzi had never played a single game.

"The first thing to do when you enter the game is to create a character," Ai Yin said. "The character creation and tutorial are free to try, but you have to pay to play the later content."

"What? You have to pay to play games?" Xiangzi exclaimed in shock.

"What? You don't have to pay to play games?" Ai Yin exclaimed in surprise.

"what?"

"what?"

"..."

"..."

The room became so quiet that you could hear your own breathing. The two looked at each other, neither knowing what to say.

"Cough cough..." Xiangzi picked up the water glass on the coffee table, took a sip, and moistened his throat. "I thought games were all free..."

None of the games she knew required money to play, so the idea of ​​paying for games seemed...unbelievable to her.

Ai-yin understood immediately.

In this era, games disguised as free-to-play are rampant, leading most people to believe that free-to-play games are common sense.

"Modern games are divided into paid one-time purchases and free-to-play (and paid in-app purchase) games. Paid one-time purchase games are like buying toys; you can only play them after you buy them. Free-to-play games, on the other hand..."

Ai Yin paused for a moment.

“Free is the most expensive. Free games have countless ways to trick you into paying.” Ai Yin sighed and slowly explained, “I’ve been tricked out of a lot of money.”

"Then why are you still playing?" Xiangzi looked at her incredulously.

She couldn't understand why people would spend so much money if they knew they were being scammed.

Money is money, isn't it? Your little money will cry.

"I'm just spending money to have fun." Ai Yin smiled, revealing her little tiger teeth. "I usually spend money on games, collect all the cards, and then delete them."

"How extravagant," Xiangzi muttered softly.

"Little Master is surprisingly stingy," Ai Yin blinked.

She hadn't expected Xiangzi to be so stingy with money.

“You’re the one who’s unexpectedly extravagant with money,” Xiangzi said, hugging his knees.

"Hehehe~" Aine played with her hair shyly.

"I wasn't praising you!" Xiangzi sighed, turning his attention back to his phone. "So, how do I get through the character creation stage?"

"Like this...it should be like this here...and then..."

Aiyin climbed onto the sofa, wrapped her arms around Xiangzi's neck, and stretched them out from behind.

The two were almost touching, their blue and pink hair mingling together, the scent of shower gel evaporating into the air with their body heat, and their body temperatures seemed even warmer under the cool air conditioning.

Xiangzi occasionally looked away from his phone screen, focusing his attention on the speaker as Aiyin went on and on explaining the function and effects of this attribute.

Aine's profile looks so delicate, it makes you want to pinch her cheeks.

When she was explaining the function of attribute points to Xiangzi, her eyes shone with focused attention, but beneath that light, deep within her eyes, Xiangzi could still see lingering confusion and fear.

This child is much stronger than he looks.

"Little Master, Little Master, are you listening?" Ai Yin poked Xiangzi's cheek.

It's soft and fluffy, like a cake.

"Such soft cheeks, let me poke them a couple more times."

Aine wanted to reach out again.

"How can you be so disrespectful?"

Xiangzi grabbed Aiyin's face and pulled it to both sides, turning her chubby face into a pancake.

"Once you've become an apprentice, you have to respect your master, understand? Who would casually poke their master's face like that? That's disrespectful to elders, do you understand?"

"Waaaaah—!" (The rest of the text appears to be gibberish and unrelated.)

Aiyin lay on the sofa, snuggling behind Xiangzi like a big dog. Xiangzi grabbed her face, and in this position, she couldn't resist at all.

Although she could exert her strength, she didn't dare to.

"I know I was wrong!"

Xiangzi took the opportunity to pinch Ai Yin's cheeks for a good while before letting go.

She pretended to be very angry, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Do you dare next time?"

"I won't do it again..." Ai Yin lowered her head, letting out a low sob.

"That's good." Xiangzi waved his phone. "Let's continue."

Having learned her lesson, Ai Yin stopped teasing her little master and earnestly taught Xiangzi how to create a character, and then they completed the tutorial.

The game's tutorial is less of a tutorial and more of a standalone trial map, which Xiangzi quickly became engrossed in under Ai's guidance.

Time ticked by, and gradually it became late at night.

When I finished the trial and selected a different location, the game popped up a payment screen.

Xiangzi glanced at the prices and gasped.

"How can everyone afford such an expensive game...?"

“After all, back in the days of the Big Girls Band, everyone could just buy effects pedals that cost tens of thousands of yen without a second thought.” Aine shrugged. “That’s much less than what I spend on a single online purchase.”

Aiyin talks about spending money on a single transaction as if it were as easy as me topping up my phone credit by two yuan. Xiangzi vaguely remembers that "single transaction" refers to the highest price tier on the recharge interface...

"Let's not talk about money anymore..." Xiangzi decided to stop thinking about it and tapped the payment interface with trembling fingers.

The payment QR code appeared on the screen, and Xiangzi was about to tap it to jump to the payment process—

drop--

She heard a beep.

That's the sound of paying the bill.

Xiangzi turned around.

Ai Yin's phone just displayed the message "Payment successful." Shortly after, the payment code on Xiang Zi's phone disappeared, and the game officially entered the interface for selecting the player's location.

"How do I choose?" Xiangzi asked, turning around.

By this time, it was already midnight.

"Just blindly choose to sacrifice the world, it makes no difference." Ai Yin had already opened her account by then. "Little Master, remember to add me as a friend after you land."

"Oh......"

Xiangzi clicks on the middle one of the eight selectable worlds, "Sacrifice." Incidentally, the remaining seven worlds are Chastity, Diligence, Charity, Humility, Patience, Temperance, and Kindness.

According to Ai Yin, the main city of the assigned location was chosen at the beginning, but players can use the Rainbow Bridge to teleport between different maps, so the assigned location does not have much significance.

at this time.

Xiangzi sensed a surge of magical energy.

A powerful stream of magic surged from the phone screen, enveloping her and Aine.

The Lost Story: The Lost Child - Chapter 313 Welcome to Fairy Tale Town

A mysterious flow of magic silently emanated from the phone, like some kind of gas. By the time Xiangzi noticed it, the mysterious flow of magic had already enveloped them.

Soon, the magic became so concentrated that even Aine noticed it.

"This—the rumors were true after all! There's something wrong with this game!"

Aine instinctively took out her Soul Gem, ready to transform at any moment to resist the stream of magic that was trying to envelop them.

However, Xiangzi held down her restless hands.

"Little Master?!" Ai Yin seemed surprised that Xiangzi would hold her down.

If this continues, they will be completely surrounded. Why is Xiangzi holding her down?

"Don't move, pretend you haven't noticed, let it take us away," Xiangzi said.

She discovered it much earlier than Aine.

Their original purpose was to find out the truth, and now that the fish had taken the bait, how could they stop there? Xiangzi insisted on going to find out the truth.

“But…” Aine still hesitated.

She still felt it was too dangerous to simply let the witch take her away without any resistance. Who knew where they would go? Maybe they would never come back?

If that's the case...

“You want to save Su Shi, right?” Xiangzi looked into Aine’s eyes. “This is our best chance to get to know her.”

She paused, then released her grip on Aine's hand.

“Of course you can leave, I won’t stop you,” Xiangzi said. “I can do it alone.”

After speaking, Xiangzi finally saw the look he wanted. Aiyin gritted her teeth and grabbed Xiangzi's wrist.

No, I want to go with you.

"Very good." Xiangzi curled the corners of his mouth and smiled slightly. "Then let's find out."

The magic in the air was so concentrated that it enveloped them, forming a sphere from which the outside world was invisible.

finally--

The sphere suddenly shrank and disappeared completely.

The two cell phones fell to the ground with a thud.

=======

Loading... 100%

Checking map... 100%

Checking shaders... 100%

System check in progress... 100%

Inspection complete...

Welcome to the world of Fairy Tale Town.

Witch's Name: Once Upon a Time

Difficulty of the task: Unknown

Information: The nature of this character is family-oriented. They yearn for a complete family and therefore invite everyone to play house with them.

According to urban legends collected so far, several magical girls and a considerable number of ordinary people have been captured by it, making it extremely dangerous. Administrator [Toyokawa Shoko] will take over all investigative authority for this case.

From Xiangzi's perspective, the surrounding scenery gradually turned dark, and then quickly became clear again.

What comes into view is a vast expanse of azure blue.