Chapter 1136 — Preparations Before an Old Man Goes Online

"This is the system's default male form. To make it easier for novices like you to enter the network smoothly, and to keep them from turning into crooked monstrosities or running around naked in the virtual Illusory Hub City, the neural network's designers built this basic template into the original immersion pods, easy to modify and manipulate. He is considered the most ordinary, middling appearance in the human world; there was even a program that discussed this specifically, but you didn't at the time..." Milmina rattled on, but soon noticed that Amorn had fallen into an eerie silence, and she could not help asking, "What is it? You look as though you have just been struck a blow..."

"I... no, that is your imagination," Amorn said at once, waving his hand forcefully — and that unconscious gesture left him rigid as petrified stone the very next second, for he suddenly realized: what he had just waved was his own arm.

An arm like a mortal's.

He looked down and, for the first time, saw his body in this virtual space — an ordinary body standing on the ground, draped in a short white robe and trousers, with four limbs, a torso, and... a "sense of touch."

Watching Amorn's reaction, Milmina seemed to have expected all of this. The former goddess of magic suddenly smiled and took a light step forward. "Now, let me show you what to do."

The adjustments that followed were not easy. Amorn spent a long time mastering the "simple operations" Milmina spoke of, but most of his effort went into growing accustomed to his "humanoid body." As a deity born from the currents of mortal thought, his image had been locked by mortal imagination into a majestic white stag many, many years ago, and the authorities he commanded did not include "taking human form" or "walking the world." Thus he had never possessed a body of any humanoid race at all, and to him those overly intricate limbs and that torso which had to stand upright... were truly far too bizarre a sensation.

In the end, though, his efforts bore fruit. Milmina showed unprecedented patience this time, and when she stepped back, a figure utterly different from before stood before the giant mirror.

It was an elven elder no longer young. Hair that should have been golden was streaked with the gray-white of frost and wind; his calm, peaceful features held the marks carved by the years. His eye sockets were deep, his cheekbones high, yet his bearing remained upright. A pale green robe in elven style — though perhaps thousands of years out of fashion in the outside world — draped his frame; its surface was adorned with vines and thorns, and at the collar were depicted the silhouettes of high mountains and flowing waters.

He looked at the mirror before him and suddenly smiled, seeming greatly pleased with his new appearance.

"I thought you would craft yourself a more spirited image. I never expected you to choose such an aged posture," Milmina said, watching Amorn nod in satisfaction with some surprise. "Are you sure you want to keep this look? We can still make changes."

"No, this is fine..." Amorn nodded gently, his tone somewhat adrift. "This is quite good."

"Well... all right. It is your aesthetic, after all," Milmina said, hands on her hips, shaking her head. "Aren't you going to take a couple of steps next? I think it is very necessary for you to get used to this — it will keep you from crawling out your first step once you enter Illusory Hub City. True, mortals have a saying nowadays that 'on the internet, no one knows you're a what in real life,' but crawling down the streets of Illusory Hub City would still be far too undignified for a god."

"It is not that exaggerated," Amorn could not help laughing, but then he promptly sobered, lowering his head to regard his own legs. "Walk... right. I can move now."

"You have been able to move for a while," Milmina said leisurely. "But this step may not be as easy as you imagine."

"It is only the first step. What could possibly..." Amorn said with some disdain, then lifted his leg and strode forward — the next second he pitched straight forward, face down, but a pair of hands shot out from the side in time and caught him steady.

"I told you, this first step is not so easy," Milmina said, releasing her hold with a teasing smile. "You had best take advantage of the fact that everything here is virtual and get used to this feeling of mental unlocking first."

"Mental unlocking... your choice of words is far too grave," Amorn said, covering his embarrassment. "It was only a tiny slip. You know I have had no experience of walking for three thousand years, and more importantly, even three thousand years ago I never walked upright... This is truly awful. Do mortals really find ordinary walking this difficult?"

"Stop complaining. I am the one who ought to complain — I never imagined that my first day of formally using the neural network would be spent accompanying a longtime cripple through rehabilitation training," Milmina's voice came from beside him, thick with resentment. "I only hope you don't spend as long on 'walking upright' as you did adjusting your appearance, old stag."

Struggling to adapt to the strange sensations of this virtual body, Amorn could not help frowning at the goddess of magic. "I told you, do not give me nicknames at random, especially ones that sound this odd..."

He stopped abruptly there, as if something had just occurred to him, and asked with a hint of suspicion: "There is something I have been meaning to ask you. When I entered this space just now, I seemed to hear a voice saying something about the user 'Highway Stag' entering the pre-connection zone... Do you know what that was about?"

Milmina's somewhat languid expression stiffened for an instant. Brief as it was, that stiffness did not escape Amorn's eyes.

"So you do know," Amorn's gaze grew more and more focused. "Then what exactly does that term mean?"

Milmina glanced at Amorn with mounting embarrassment, and after a still longer silence she finally could not help but look away: "It's your name."

"...My name?"

"Think about it for a moment. From a security standpoint, could Gao Yang Cecil possibly allow us to enter the neural network under our real names? Is there a single mortal in all the world who would dare give himself the name of a god, under any circumstances?" Milmina explained with perfect seriousness. "And besides, taking a false name for yourself inside the neural network is itself an established convention..."

"No, that's not what I asked. I'm asking you... what is this name 'Highway Deer' about! I don't recall ever performing any operation of that sort — perhaps I don't understand the principles behind these technologies, but at the very least I am quite certain that this bizarre phrase was absolutely not set in place beforehand by Gao Yang or Camille!"

"...All right, it was me who registered it for you..."

Amorn: "?"