Joe's virtual face is a scrunched-up expression of pure concentration, complete with squinted eyes, bitten lip, and flaring nostrils. He stared at the unstable tower of small wooden blocks before him, as if it somehow held the secrets of the universe. Carefully and slowly he moved his hand towards its belly. He gently grasped a rectangular block between his index finger and thumb and carefully lifted it out of the pile. The tower sways slightly as its weight is transferred, but remains upright when selected stone blocks are deftly removed.
Once he was sure the pile wouldn't tip over, Joe grabbed hold of his new acquisition and threw it toward the man across from him. As the piece of wood spun in mid-air, a metal blade grew. A small knife stabbed right into Maggie's forehead. After a tense moment, the controller lit up, projecting a small holographic logo that read clearly and proudly: "300 points."
"Jenga!" Joe shouted triumphantly, raising his arms in the air. "Ha ha ha ha!"
He celebrated by being hit in the eye by a knife block identical to the one he threw, which was apparently worth 500 points.
"Diede," the girl said happily.
"Ugh. Damn it, Maggie," the man complained. "Can't you at least let me enjoy it?"
"I could have. I chose not to."
"So you want to play like this, huh?"
Joe pulled the blade out of his face. Of course, there is no pain. At least not physically. In "K
je
Gaining an absolute advantage in "ga" hurt his pride, even though he fully expected the result. In a game of pure mechanical skill, Maggie could not lose, and Joe knew this when he challenged her. However, his goal is not to win. In fact, quite the opposite. He noticed that the two of them played mostly games where he had the advantage over Maggie, so it was his way of letting her show off. It seemed to be working, because the girl kept grinning.
However, Joe is a simple, petty man who can't help but let his wounded pride get the better of him.
"I didn't want to do this, but I'm afraid I have to unleash my... secret technology."
Maggie's smile lit up with excitement. She always struggled with things like strategy and tactics and couldn't think of any tricks that could be applied to such a basic game. However, Joe clearly has one waiting in the wings, and she's eager to learn his "secret techniques." She watched with bated breath as he leaned forward in concentration. His eyes seemed to sparkle with determination and he had a confident smirk on his face. Then he grabbed the edge of the table with both hands, and like a hundred suns exploding, he overturned the table and stacked the knife blocks all over the floor.
"The game is abandoned," the game commentator announced flatly.
"Hey," Joe said, crossing his arms shamelessly. "You've got a long way to go—oh. Oh! Ow-ow-ow-ow!"
Maggie isn't too happy about this development. This can be seen in the expression on her face and the way the tentacles decorated with eyes tug at the man's ears.
"Joe Mulligan."
The words "Oh, full name" flashed through the mind of the sore loser.
"We discussed your unacceptable behavior, didn't we?"
"Oooo!"
"You promised you wouldn't quit in a rage again, didn't you?"
"Yeah! Oh!"
"So what was that sound just now?"
"Okay! I'm sorry! I'm sorry, so please stop! You're going to rip my ears off!"
In fact, it's quite possible because the girl pulled on both his virtual and real earlobes simultaneously to bypass the pod's pain filter.
"My understanding is that the human nervous system has a way of compensating for lost sense organs by enhancing other sense organs."
She tilted her head and opened her eyes, dilating the pitiless hollows of her irises.
"Maybe if I removed one of your ears, the other ear would still hear."
"But—oh! Your duty!"
"Deafness is neither fatal nor permanent."
As usual, Maggie is scary when she's angry.
* BRRRRRRING *
“Oh, look, there’s someone—oh!” at the door! Better go see who it is!”
Joe seized this opportunity and immediately quit V-Life. He'd never been so happy to hear a doorbell, and he'd never truly appreciated the convenience of having it connected to a VR pod. Of course, integrating the two systems is standard practice. A doorbell doesn't mean much if residents can't hear it because they're trapped in their pods. However, at that point in time, this seemingly basic feature had become Joe's lifeline. However, this is only a temporary relief. Maggie "woke up" at the same time, and the look on her face made it clear that this wasn't over yet.
Just before Qiao opened the door, the girl noticed who was outside, and her expression softened a lot.
"Good evening, Mr. Mulligan," Officer Maloney greeted him, tipping his hat. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but can I ask for Miss Wu?"
Joe stared at the policeman for several seconds, his panic turning into mild annoyance.
"Well, of course. Maggie?"
"Good evening, Officer Maloney," she said, walking out of the small apartment.
"Good evening, Miss Ou," he said with a slight nod.
"I thought it would be 40 hours before you arrived. Has humanity invented a more efficient method of faster-than-light communication since we last spoke?"
"Ha. There's no such thing. I'm afraid we'll still have to rely on the couriers."
Humanity, and indeed the rest of the galaxy, has mastered interstellar travel via wormhole generators. As one might imagine, warping the fabric of reality and creating shortcuts in the vastness of space is no easy task. It requires expensive machinery and a lot of energy, but it's by far the most convenient and economical way to get from one end of the galaxy to the other. However, the civilizations of the galaxy have not yet discovered a method by which they can communicate in real time across the universe. Therefore, any information, messages and other data must be transported like other goods. Except for emergency dispatches, any letters or letters sent to other solar systems usually take several days to receive a reply.
In Officer Maloney's case, he was awaiting word on a suspect he was investigating from a neighboring solar system, which, according to the shipping schedule, would take another two days.
"Actually, I came with a gift."
The officer raised his left hand to show he was holding a bag containing a stack of white plastic boxes. Each crab is stamped with Leo, the area's most exclusive seafood restaurant
a
do da Pi
Chi's crab themed logo.
"I don't want tribute, Officer Maloney," Maggie said matter-of-factly.
"What? No, it's not like that. I was called to Leo's house because a couple on a date were having a rough time, right?" He began to explain.
"Can you get to the point?" Joe interrupted. "We're still busy."
"I'm sorry. Long story short, I handled the situation well and the boss was impressed and grateful. He gave me a huge pile of food that he planned to throw away tomorrow as a thank you. I couldn't finish it all by myself and I didn't want to waste it, So I passed it on to all my friends and colleagues."
"I understand," Maggie nodded. “That way, I’ll help reduce waste.”
"She really wants to try the Nebula lobster special," Joe interjected.
"Yes," the girl quickly wiped the drool from her chin.
"Haha. Well, don't let me delay you. Good night, Mr. Mulligan. Miss."
Maloney placed the takeout box on the ground and continued on his way. Maggie's lecture was temporarily postponed because she brought in a fancy seafood dish and started eating it immediately. She ate one bite at a time, chewing slowly, fully enjoying the free meal. She even threw a few pieces to Azgod Kalal, who was shivering in her curly hair as usual. The little snake seemed to love it and its owner thought it was special.
The girl had been curious about the menu of Leonardo da Pinch's restaurant ever since she saw its ad a few weeks ago, but Joe refused to go there. Not because of the price. In fact, they are very cheap and Maggie can easily afford them. It was an overly luxurious atmosphere. Ordinary people like Joe who don't belong to that trendy establishment are sure to feel awkward and out of place. Disappointingly, he refuses to go, but Maggie won't force him to go. That's why Maloney's gift was the luckiest. This pleased her so much that she silently decided to postpone her lecture indefinitely.
Joe, on the other hand, seems to be in a bad mood. It's not that he doesn't like the food. He did. Although V-Life has a wide variety of delicious dishes, the real deal definitely has a different feel. It’s not a question of taste or texture, but a psychological reaction. For most people, knowing that a virtual treat is fake tends to make them less than satisfied. That's why customers prefer the real thing to digital replicas, and Joe is no exception. However, something must be bothering him, and Maggie thinks his mood is strange and she feels the need to talk to him.
"Is something worrying you, Joe?"
"Huh? No, not exactly."
Maggie immediately grabbed his already painful earlobe and pulled hard.
"Ow-ow-ow-ow! Okay! Okay! You made it clear!"
The girl sighed and let him go. She was still confused as to why this man kept forgetting, she could tell right away that he wasn't telling the truth, but that wasn't the most important question at hand.
"What worried you for so long?" she asked.
"Long time? What?"
"You have been acting strangely since that incident. Is it the sequence of the shootings that concerns you?"
"You... you can say that." He said evasively.
It's been less than a week since Joe saw Maggie die, come back to life, and then fall into a two-day coma. Logically speaking, even he would have some psychological scars after going through an ordeal like that. Both the medical robot and Joe himself assure her that he's fine, but the girl refuses to accept their claims. The human mind is a tricky thing, it tends to convince itself that it's healthy even when it clearly isn't. Joe's judgment cannot be trusted, and neither can the machine's judgment. Sure, it has advanced diagnostic software and several libraries of medical literature in its memory, but it's a synthetic brain with no free will or self-awareness. The idea that it could accurately psychoanalyze a sentient creature was absurd, at least in Maggie's mind. Granted, the girl was hardly qualified for the job, but she knew someone who was.
"Should we go visit Dr. Boring at all?" she suggested.
"……who?"
"A mental health expert in our area. He has a pretty good reputation online. He will definitely help you overcome any trauma."
"Uh," he rolled his eyes. "I don't need to see a psychiatrist."
"Psychiatrist," she corrected him.
"The same thing."
"No, it's not."
"Look, I'm telling you, it's not that serious. Besides, those guys scare me. Wearing little glasses, big beards, bald heads."
Now that Joe mentioned this, Maggie realized this was actually a trend. Looking back on her browsing activity, almost all the psychiatrists she saw had one or more of these traits. Especially Dr. Boring, it's three against three. Maybe it's some kind of social construct? An unofficial uniform? Or maybe it's just the field of psychology that attracts people with this grooming preference? No, those are questions for later, and she can't change the subject.
"So you know exactly what's bothering you?" she pressed.
"Yeah! I just don't want to talk about it!"
Maggie didn't like it at all. It wasn't any obligation that kept her so insistent, but her own guilt. She felt responsible for putting Joe through such an ordeal, and her budding conscience would not calm down until she was absolutely sure there would be no long-term complications. Having said that, maybe she was a little too pushy. Mental health seems to be a sensitive topic, so perhaps putting more pressure on Joe would be counterproductive.
"I understand," she relented. "As long as you're willing to trust me with your ideas, I'm here to help you."
The man watched her return to her alien seafood platter with an expression that suggested he didn't believe the argument was valid. After the shock passed, his ears felt hot. Not because of the pull just now, but because of a feeling of shame. Here she was, the most beautiful, understanding, smartest, strongest, most terrifying girl he had ever seen - in a good way. She was just trying to help, but he was ignoring her like a fool. Maggie may not care about rejection, but Joe definitely doesn't. After falling out of love again and again, he is very afraid that the girl of his dreams will disappear from his life. That's why this class is so difficult for him.
That said, if there was one woman who tolerated his pettiness, childishness, and pathetic problems, it was Maggie.
"It's about Officer Maloney," he finally revealed.
"Really?" The girl was completely confused. "Are you worried he's going to arrest you?"
"No, of course you don't understand," he shouted. "You probably wouldn't know, unless I embarrassed myself by trying to explain like an idiot."
The man rubbed his face with both hands and paced back and forth in the small room, sorting out his thoughts. Meanwhile, Maggie quietly put down her half-eaten dinner and lowered herself gently so that she was sitting on the floor rather than in the air.
"Try to paint things from my perspective, okay?" Joe started. "I met you, an incredibly charming man, completely by chance. You found me a curious and interesting guy and followed me home, and it was fun that we spent so much time together. It was so funny. Incredible. Can you keep up with me?"
The girl nodded firmly.
"Then this guy named Maloney showed up out of nowhere and started acting like he knew you well. He was always coming to you, talking to you privately, bringing you things. He even gave you a nickname .”
"You're worried about my relationship with Officer Maloney?"
"What? No, don't be silly!" He waved his hands dramatically. "Why should I bother with a handsome, healthy, successful, employed man in uniform talking to a girl I like all the time?" That was just for a moment. Rise up and follow my girl? This is ridiculous!"
Maggie narrowed her eyes and pointed at Joe suspiciously.
"Yes, that's sarcastic," he said, anticipating her question.
"oh!"
The girl smiled, satisfied that she had guessed correctly.
"Oh oh……"
When she realized why Joe did what he did, her expression turned to concern, then to enlightenment. He was jealous of the policeman. Oddly, the shooting didn't seem to be part of it, but beyond that, Maggie suddenly understood everything. She feels like she really should have realized this sooner because she watches so many soap operas. However, the events and characters in these TV series are again over-dramatized. True jealousy was far more subtle than she imagined.
Furthermore, Joe's fears were completely unfounded. Officer Maloney does this because Maggie indirectly awakens the detective in him and he feels he owes her. Since then, he has sought her guidance and advice on various leads, patterns, and investigations that he is now actively pursuing. At most he is an apprentice. He calls her "Miss Oh" because he feels "Muggs" is too informal and inappropriate to refer to someone of her ability. On the other hand, calling a cute young girl something ominous like an "observer" also feels wrong. So, he started calling her by the first letter of her title, which turned out to be mutually acceptable.
Maggie knew all this, but Joe didn't. He was not informed of their conversation because Officer Maloney did not want to drag a civilian into his police work without a good reason. Then again, even if he knew all the details, he might still be jealous. The emotions associated with romance are often powerful enough to overwhelm logic and reason. Therefore, alleviating Joe's concerns is not a matter of simply explaining the situation. Even if this works and gets him to relax, it's only a matter of time before a similar misunderstanding occurs. Maggie will make sure to get things straightened out no matter what, but if she's going to get this right, she has to address the root cause of Joe's jealousy.
That is, he has extremely low self-esteem. The reason why Joe compares himself to Officer Maloney is probably because he feels that he is not competent enough in front of women. Addressing this deep-rooted insecurity is not something that can be done quickly or easily. It'll definitely mess with your head, but it's such an extreme choice for something so small. Maggie decided that the best thing she could do was give him a nudge in the right direction, and she knew how to do that.
The girl stood up from the ground and walked towards Joe. She put her arms around his back, pressed her soft waist against his chest, and rested her head on his neck. This is not a simple hug, but an intimate hug. The poor guy was completely taken aback by this gesture. Not knowing at all how to react, he raised his hands as if he were being arrested and began to stammer something unintelligible.
"I'm sorry," Maggie said softly. "I see."
"Wu? Who are you? What do you do?"
The man's mind was spinning rapidly, trying in vain to figure out what she wanted to say.
"Yes. It's my fault you think that."
"It is?!"
"I failed to take into account your emotional state and this caused you distress."
"Don't do that!" It's all because I'm-"
"Joe Mulligan."
When the words "Oh, full name" came to his mind again, he immediately closed his mouth and became nervous.
Don’t underestimate your value as an individual. While you may be inferior in physical fitness and intelligence to someone like Officer Grant Maloney, I must reiterate that these qualities are not the basis of my continued interest in you. "
"Yes, I know. I'm just a stupid science experiment that sometimes teaches you things that make no sense." He said painfully.
This is real. However, you seem to have fundamentally misunderstood what this connection means to me. "
"Then explain it to me!" His frustration suddenly rose. "I can't read minds!" I don't know what you are thinking if you don't speak!"
"Speech has its uses, but it also has its limitations. The message I want to convey cannot rely on such a basic and inefficient method of communication. That is why I intend to convey my message directly to you in a way that cannot be misinterpreted. idea. However, this approach has risks that I cannot fully mitigate. Knowing this, will you accept my unfiltered thoughts, Joe Mulligan?”
"I...I think I'd like it, yeah."
"Then you should understand what is required of you next."
The girl raised her face, closed her eyes, tilted her head slightly, and pursed her lips. Joe was completely stunned. Of all the ways he could imagine discussing it, this wasn't one of them. Of course he knew what to do. He had fantasized about this moment too many times to admit it. Yet, now that he was here, he hesitated. He looked down at Maggie and felt like he was looking into an abyss that he couldn't understand. Which was ironic really, considering his attitude when they first met was casual and relaxed.
For a full minute he stood there petrified with indecision, fear, and uncertainty. Then two. Or five? Maybe ten? Joe was so nervous that his sense of time was completely confused. However, no matter how many seconds actually passed, Maggie never left that place. She just stood there, pressing against him, waiting patiently, without any intention of backing down. By the way, she smells really, really good too. Such as Apple. Joe loves apples and focusing on their relaxing aroma calms him down. After relaxing a little, his heart stopped pounding madly in his ears, giving him enough time to listen to himself think.
Stop messing around and kiss her, you stupid woman!
With a final push of self-deprecation, Joe screwed up his courage, put his arms around her, and placed his lips on hers. This was his first real kiss. Maggie too. Then, like any other new experience, the girl, as usual, took a million more steps than expected.
Joe felt his consciousness growing exponentially outward. In the blink of an eye, he could see the entirety of the super city Dave-156. Then he witnessed Butte
po
Planet d-4, followed by the other planets in the solar system. He then saw the special arm of the Milky Way that made his home, but it didn't stop there. He saw the rest of the Milky Way, and then all the other galaxies, including the immeasurable distances between them. His awareness didn't stop growing until he felt as if he was staring at the entire universe at once.
There, in the vast void, represented by an insignificant particle, Joe saw himself. This is an extreme view that could easily leave a conscious person mentally scarred and deeply scarred, or at least lead to severe depression. Yet, there was something about him. A seemingly insignificant point is surrounded by a dark void in which paradoxical light shines. This shows that despite Maggie's endless possibilities, despite countless variables, she chose him and him alone, embracing her entire life.
Joe felt good about it.
