by The Red Fox
8 - Crawler (2)
After fastening his seatbelt, Lin Xun looked toward Dong Jun.
To his slight surprise, the male god personally released the handbrake and then grasped the steering wheel.
The car started, pulling out of the parking area. His driving movements carried a fluid, effortless ease.
—This was a manually driven car. It shouldn’t have existed in this era.
Three years ago, automated driving programs became widespread, and all cars were mandated to be equipped with automated driving systems.
The maturity of 5G network technology made real-time reactions a reality. With global networking, every vehicle was under the system’s control. One only needed to set a destination, and all tasks were handled by the automated driving system.
The precise program operated like a perfectly functioning machine, coordinating the routes and speeds of all vehicles—for three years, not a single traffic accident had occurred.
The operator of this vast automated driving system was none other than Galaxy.
Yet, at this very moment, Lin Xun saw that the CEO of Galaxy—he wasn’t using the automated driving program but was operating the car entirely manually.
Dong Jun probably noticed his gaze and said softly, “Nostalgia.”
Lin Xun replied, “It’s rare.”
The Bentley merged into the flow of traffic. Dong Jun drove steadily, almost indistinguishable from automated driving.
If it were automated driving, Lin Xun would have continued asking questions, but now—with the male god driving—he naturally felt too embarrassed to press further.
Lin Xun fell silent for a while, unsure of what to say.
He looked at Dong Jun, a nearly perfect profile.
He focused his attention on him, trying to see.
No interface, nothing at all.
Ever since that mysterious space appeared yesterday, even when looking at stray cats on the street, he could see a blank program input interface.
—Except for Dong Jun.
Dong Jun seemed to be the only normal person in the world.
After confirming this, Lin Xun turned to look at the street scenes outside.
In the night, the city was brilliantly lit, the glow spreading into the sky, obscuring the stars.
Dong Jun turned on some music, a soothing and beautiful melody, like a summer night.
It was 8:30 PM. The car entered the old city district, approaching Lin Xun’s address.
Under the dim yellow streetlights, light filtered through the gaps in the plane tree leaves. As they neared the destination, Lin Xun heard Dong Jun say calmly, “Lions has achieved something quite astonishing. This afternoon, their lead told me they’re determined to win the Technology Expo championship.”
Lin Xun: “...”
Dong Jun considered Lions’ achievement astonishing.
Does he want me to start feeling jealous now?
He said, “Goddess of the Luo River has also registered for the Expo.”
“I know.” The car turned a corner and drove through the neighborhood gate. “I wish you all the best.”
Lin Xun watched the passing street scenes, biting his lower lip, then asked Dong Jun, “And how would you… evaluate Goddess of the Luo River?”
For about thirty seconds, Dong Jun didn’t speak.
Lin Xun grew uneasy. Thinking of the praise Lions received, he felt his species gradually changing.
As the music reached its end, in the ensuing silence, Dong Jun said, “Emotionally, I’m on your side.”
For a moment, Lin Xun was stunned. He looked up and happened to meet Dong Jun’s gaze.
He asked, “And rationally?”
Dong Jun curved his lips slightly. “That depends on your performance.”
Lin Xun thought to himself that he’d interpret this as the male god encouraging him.
He felt that at this moment, he should express his feelings to Dong Jun, saying something like "I've always admired you, and I'm honored to meet you in person," but when the words reached his lips, they didn't feel quite right, and he was a bit too timid, so he simply didn't say them.
The car slowly pulled up to the building and came to a stop. The door automatically opened.
Lin Xun said, "Thank you for driving me."
"You're welcome," Dong Jun replied. "Take care and rest well. Good night."
"You should rest well too," Lin Xun said as he got out of the car. After a moment of hesitation, he added, "...Goodbye."
In the soft interior light, Dong Jun's expression seemed... to soften as well. "Goodbye."
Lin Xun turned and headed upstairs, catching a glimpse in his peripheral vision that his idol's car hadn't driven away yet.
He went upstairs and returned to his room.
Wang Anquan and Zhao Jiagou were in the middle of a ranked game. He walked straight through the living room and into his own room.
Without turning on the light, he stood by the window and looked down.
Dong Jun's car still hadn't left—after a while longer, what felt like a long time to Lin Xun, at least the length of a cigarette, the highly recognizable black Bentley slowly started its engine, turned on its signal lights, made a U-turn, and drove off in the direction it had come from, eventually disappearing into the vast night.
He couldn't quite describe what he was feeling; it all felt unreal.
When he returned to the living room, Wang Anquan and Zhao Jiagou gave him an enthusiastic welcome and expressed satisfaction with the results he had achieved.
"Having a server makes things much easier. Tomorrow, we'll start recruiting programmers," Wang Anquan said, stretching lazily. "Let's get to bed early tonight!"
Lin Xun sat on the sofa, squinting slightly. "Dong Jun said that Lions has achieved an 'astonishing result.' Can you imagine? Something Dong Jun called 'astonishing.'"
"Speaking of that, I looked into their information today," Wang Anquan opened his laptop and pulled up a file. "Resumes of their core members, especially this one—their leader, Chen Xi. He's also a top-tier talent. Look at his papers and projects."
Zhao Jiagou began to admire them, but Lin Xun didn't look. "I know about his papers and projects."
Wang Anquan added, "He's also an ACM champion. That's not too bad—we won that in college too. But this—he was an IOI gold medalist. That takes some real talent."
"IOI?" Lin Xun said. "Never won that. I was an IMO gold medalist."
Zhao Jiagou patted Wang Anquan on the shoulder from behind. "Sorry, I was an IOI gold medalist in high school, a few years back."
Wang Anquan: "..."
He said, "Am I the only one who started halfway?"
"But you have exceptional talent too," Zhao Jiagou smoothed things over. "Especially when it comes to hacking into other people's databases."
Wang Anquan retorted, "I never stole data, so it's not hacking. Looking at data... can that even be called hacking?"
Lin Xun stared at Chen Xi's photo on the computer screen—this man was twenty-nine years old, with a decent appearance, standing at the entrance of some museum, smiling with confidence and ambition.
Lin Xun closed the laptop.
He said, "I don't think I'm any worse than him."
"There's still a month before the preliminaries," Zhao Jiagou said. "Besides refining the Goddess of the Luo River, what else can we do? Try to find out what they're working on?"
"We could curse him to go bald," Lin Xun said as he got up to wash up.
He looked at his reflection in the bathroom mirror.
—After all, there was no history of baldness in his family.
He could still cultivate.
Cultivation.
Thinking of this gave him a headache.
After washing his face, he returned to his room and took out his phone.
—One unread message.
It was actually from Old Man Huo.
—And it was a group chat invitation.
Lin Xun focused his gaze and saw the group name was clearly "A Loving Family," with a sunflower as the profile picture.
He wondered, had he already been recognized by Grandpa Huo as a family member?
Upon entering, he realized this was clearly not a family group, as it had twelve hundred members.
As he joined, a message popped up at the bottom.
Qingcheng - Xiaoyaozi: Is this a new fellow Daoist?
Geling - Danyang Jun: Which fellow Daoist has taken on a new disciple?
Nanzhao - Butterfly Madam: Which family's little friend are you? @A Happy Lemon Spirit
Qingcheng - Yanxiazi: Qingcheng Mountain has no new disciples recently. @A Happy Lemon Spirit Why aren’t you speaking?
A Happy Lemon Spirit: ...Hello, everyone.
Nanzhao - Butterfly Madam: Little friend, are you really a lemon spirit? Such beings rarely attain sentience; it’s quite rare.
A Happy Lemon Spirit: I’m human.
Lin Xun immediately changed his nickname, first to "...Lin Suanfa."
—On social media, using his real name always felt a bit awkward, but the word "algorithm" didn’t quite fit with the vibe of this group. After thinking for a moment, he deleted the "fa" character, turning it into "Lin Suan."
As soon as he changed it, he was tagged again.
Limitless - Azure Peak True Lord: @Lin Suan, disciple, when joining the group, change your nickname and hang up your sect tag properly.
Azure Peak True Lord—Lin Xun knew this one.
When Old Man Huo came to collect rent this morning, he had introduced himself as Azure Peak True Lord Huo Qingshan.
He went to add his sect tag, becoming "Limitless - Lin Suan."
Facing this name, Lin Xun didn’t know what to say.
Nanzhao - Butterfly Madam: So it’s a little friend from the Limitless Sect. What a pity, you’re in the Central Plains; we can’t easily meet.
Nanhai - Gushan Jian: The Great Dao Debate Assembly is about to begin, won’t you come, Madam? @Nanzhao - Butterfly Madam
Nanzhao - Butterfly Madam: It depends, hehe.
—Accompanied by a classical yellow bean shy emoji.
Qingcheng - Xiaoyaozi: @Limitless - Azure Peak True Lord Congratulations, Brother Qingshan, on gaining a beloved disciple! Applause
Nanhai - Gushan Jian: @Limitless - Azure Peak True Lord Congratulations, Brother Qingshan, on gaining a beloved disciple! Applause
Then, Lin Xun watched as they started copying the message.
After a long period of spamming, it finally settled down.
Limitless - Azure Peak True Lord: Same to you, same to you. I will surely bring my little disciple to visit another day. @Limitless - Lin Suan Disciple, first pay your respects to the seniors here.
Lin Xun’s fingers felt a bit stiff as he typed.
Limitless - Lin Suan: Greetings to all the seniors.
Nanzhao - Butterfly Madam: So well-behaved. Smile
Then, they started copying again.
Lin Xun felt dazed, as if he were dreaming.
What kind of simple yet surreal scene was this?
A message notification popped up in the top left corner of the screen. He switched out and saw a long list of friend requests, all showing they were from the group "A Loving Family."
He accepted them one by one, watching as his chat list filled with a long string of "xxzi," "xx True Lord," "xx Guest," and "xx Immortal." He felt as if he were living in a dream, not in the twenty-first century.
At that very moment, a mechanical voice sounded in his mind again.
"Side quest activated. Quest name: Enter the Sect. Quest objective: Gain recognition from three or more Immortal Sect elders. Quest reward: Chaos Treasure Box x1, Spiritual Power 5. Quest progress: 0/3."
Lin Xun pondered for a long time, then opened the emoji panel. Taking a deep breath of Qi, his fingertip hovered uncertainly over the nostalgic yellow bean emoji.