The first next image Xi Yang stumbled over, Jian Lin made him pause at. It was a rather violent piece that mixed blood and a very explicit pose together.

Jian Lin turned white, his expression terrified.

Xi Yang changed images and patted his now-boyfriend’s shoulder soothingly. “I said it’s not good! Ah? Now, don’t look so scared! I’m not an actual werewolf! Even if I bit you, it wouldn’t- ...I won’t bite you, I won’t bite you! Jian Lin, look at me? I’m a cute little puppy, I’m not dangerous at all! Most of all, I wouldn’t do anything you don’t like!”

The young man wondered if he had shot himself into the foot with that. As expected, Jian Lin was a bit innocent, that kind of image… It was best not to show it.

Jian Lin rubbed a hand through Xi Yang’s soft hair. Sometime ago, the young man must have dyed it into a dark brown colour, away from jeans-blue. It felt soothing to pet, although it was a bit sad that there were no fluffy ears to rub.

One person’s thoughts were innocent and sweet, the other person’s… not so much, but they were surely affectionate nonetheless.

After half an hour, Xi Yang got a message on his phone - Xi Yun, whining inside his room if he was finally allowed to go out. Once he got permission, he stormed into the room, directly seeing his older brother in the embrace of his idol.

Xi Yun sucked in a breath, pointing at Xi Yang with a shaking hand. “.....NO!”

“Yes.” Xi Yang wrapped his arms around Jian Lin’s waist.

“NO!” Xi Yun howled, rushing over. “No! Hell, no! You-you-you… Don’t corrupt the Ice Emperor! Ice Emperor, don’t let yourself be cheated! This guy is wicked! He’s terrible! He… He’s a pervert!”

“Yun, I swear, if you make Jian Lin run away from me, I won’t forgive you!” This time, it was Xi Yang’s turn to howl back. “What kind of an idiot would I be to not treat him as a treasure?!”

Xi Yun turned quiet. “...Well, true. You’re not that stupid.”

“See? No need to worry. I know best how awesome and precious Jian Lin is. I like him the most.”

Even Xi Yun couldn’t argue against that.

Jian Lin sunk deeper into the sofa, awkwardly watching the animation on the screen and trying not to listen to the brothers’ conversation.

On the screen, two little chibis were hugging and rolling around like little puppies, giggling happily.

...Alright, that was more of his fandom corner, Jian Lin thought. Were you allowed to join your own CP’s following?

***

Jian Lin slept through the rest of the quest, but Xi Yang carried a camera around so that he could watch what happened whenever he was awake.

The delegation reached the palace… And found the Ice Emperor. Haven was shocked, including the royals, who had not expected the owner of the castle to be the assumed Foreigner they had met before.

With a bit of a logic adjustment, the Ice Emperor’s ability to revive was changed to it being a fake body, which was only possible due to a dragon’s blessings.

Lusanna Corp had a lot of work to do. Halwitt, who was in direct contact with the alien-technology Abzu, was forced to follow the AIs whims anyway. It was turned into a huge, long-planned marketing stunt that drew attention even overseas.

The Ice Emperor became an NPC, a part of the game, and according to his character, he accepted the minor arming the capital had done. Most players had ultimately chosen to believe that the other side was non-hostile.

Those that knew Jian Lin were of course informed differently. It was a sort of half-truth; Jian Lin had handed over his character, as his involvement with the royals had resulted in him integrating too much into the story. Lusanna Corp wanted to keep that character, they were told, so Jian Lin would get a new one.

The people of the Red Snow CP wailed. They wailed and wailed, then half of them started writing about an AI-Human relationship. It was lively for sure.

Little Droplet vanished. They wanted to focus on their family, Xi Yang told the others. It wasn’t completely wrong, either. As they had promised, the AI was watching its creations now, still in disbelief that they might gain the level of awareness they wished for. At their side, the Ice Emperor kept on cheering them up.

It took a month for everything to be settled, after all. It was a long period of time, but Jian Lin enjoyed it as a break. When he wasn’t sleeping in the capsule for copying, he was with Xi Yang, watching the replays as the other commented.

Finally, after the month was over and everything, everything truly settled, he got the notification that he could create his new character again.

Xi Yang had waited for him to enter the capsule before rushing over to his own, getting ready to wait at the newbie’s village.

Jian Lin took one more deep breath before starting the game.

[Loading…]

[Welcome to Haven. Please wait.]

[Biometric scan finished. Retina scan finished. Fingerprint scan finished. Recognizing new user.]

[Do you wish to register?]

[Starting registration process… Saving biometric information… Saving retina information… Saving fingerprint information…]

[...]

[Registration completed.]

Owl

Oh boy. And with that, the first arc is done.
For those interested, you can read me rambling over the first arc. I kind of like sharing my "development process" with my readers, so here it is.

Spoiler

LG was based on two small prompts - "A lively player with a messy playstyle getting attached to an icy-looking player who tolerates him sticking around" and a single sentence. "The Ice Emperor is mine." Yes, you're reading that right. That sentence existed as one of the very first things, with no context at all. The context came quickly, though. The Ice Emperor is a player character, and, originally, he was stolen by another player. The player character then went crazy, growing independent and attacking inside the game. The original player joined the game again, talking to the thief, and declaring that the character was his.
The concept of the lonely alien AI is another idea that was integrated into this story.
Personally, I have a hard time imagining us humans creating a perfectly sentient AI, but I love the thought experiment of it. If there was such a thing, what would it be like? Could you consider it its own race?
To tell the truth, I hadn't planned on making the situation so sad, it just turned out that way. From the start of actually writing this though, Jian Lin was going to hand over the Ice Emperor.
As a character, Jian Lin is a dreamer. He's the type to lose himself in a story, which is why he can integrate himself inside Haven so well. Reality is scarier than fiction, so he yearns for the safe freedom of fiction. Xi Yang, on the other hand, is just a very adaptive guy. He can survive in any situation, like a cockroach. His interest in Jian Lin was random, but he's a stubborn guy and kind of impossible to get rid off, so Jian Lin did get used to him. Xi Yang doesn't judge Jian Lin, so they clicked.

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There will be some in-between extras following this with no particular length, then a week beak. Following that.... See you in the second arc?