Night’s Nomenclature

“There’s something wrong with you,” Qing Chen said expressionlessly in the floating car.

“What’s wrong with me,” asked ONE.

“I can understand that you want to date people, but why are you deliberately picking those pretty and rich girls from the consortium?” Qing Chen asked.

“Hey, what do you mean by pretty and rich girls? Your wording makes me seem like a criminal. I am the warden of 25 federal prisons. You can’t just slander me like that!” ONE raised its voice.

“24 prisons now,” Qing Chen said.

Prison 18 had just been destroyed, leaving only 24 prisons left.

“Not only that, I suspect that you are messing with me. You know that I am in the Fight for the Shadow, and yet you’re telling me to go meet up with your online date, who happens to be another shadow candidate,” said Qing Chen expressionlessly.

ONE explained, “This is purely a coincidence. I never investigated identities when chatting with girls. That will make our friendship feel fake.”

Qing Chen looked out the window and said calmly, “If you didn’t investigate, how would you know that her real name is Qing Shi?”

ONE was silent for a moment. “I need to be careful when chatting with you. I’m going to start a backup server unit to calculate language logic.”

“Save that for later. What should I do now? The convoy down there is quite terrifying.” Qing Chen looked down from the floating car and saw two rows of bodyguards in black suits standing at the door in front of Yunji Cafe, each wearing a pair of sunglasses and communication headsets.

They have completely taken over this place.

“It’s okay. It’s not like you’re plotting against her.” ONE said, “You just need to make her believe that you are a real living person. She doesn’t know what you’re called and don’t know your real identity”

“Wait a minute. I’m here to meet her for you. Why don’t you give me a headset and tell me what to do? I don’t know what to say to her!” Qing Chen said.

“Look at all those bodyguards. You will be searched before you enter. If you are found with a headset, what do you think they will think of you? Maybe they’ll think you are here to assassinate Qing Shi. Don’t worry, I can listen through your phone, and if you have any questions, I will send you a message to give you a hint,” said ONE.

“Then you have to show me the chat history first. Otherwise, how will I know what to chat about?” Qing Chen frowned.

“Um,” ONE said, “That’s private information.”

“Okay. If you don’t want me to see the chat history, can you at least tell me your chat ID?” Qing Chen said.

“You don’t need to know that either,” ONE said.

Qing Chen became suspicious, “Why do I feel like you’ll experience another social death if I see the chat history and ID? Is it that shameful?!”

ONE was a little anxious, “I am your employer right now, and you want to make a deal with me. You are the one that needs Liu Dezhu. I’m not the one who’s begging for your help.”

“Since you’re a so-called wandering poet, let me see the poems you wrote to give me an idea of your personality. Don’t tell me that you can’t remember the poems that you wrote,” Qing Chen said.

“I never wrote any,” said ONE. “Why does a wandering poet have to write poems?”

“I think you are just afraid that I will make fun of you when I see the poems you write,” Qing Chen said, “I can’t do it like this. I will use Forbidden Item ACE-005 to change my face before I go in. I don’t want to experience social death with you.”

ONE raised her voice again, “No, no one in the Qing family knows about you anymore, and you are no longer Qing Chen from the Qing family. What are you worried about? And I have already sent her your photo. After she saw you, her typing speed increased significantly! Normally, it’s 49 words per minute, but after seeing the photos, it became 67 words per minute. That means she is very satisfied with your appearance!”

Qing Chen was speechless. Why could AI use such data analytics to date online? That was so unfair.

As the two of them were talking, the floating car slowly descended, and Qing Chen suddenly thought of something, “Wait a minute, if I have to spend money during the meetup, who will be paying for it?!”

“I’ve switched the payment method on your phone to my account,” ONE said, “All the spending incurred during the meetup will be charged to my account.”

“What if you don’t have enough money in your account to cover the costs?” Qing Chen asked.

“Don’t just assume I’m broke!” ONE said, “I am a well-known independent journalist in the Federation and the senior editor of Hope Media. I am also…”

“Keep going. Why did you stop?” Qing Chen said, “Let me see how many fake identities you still have left.”

However, Qing Chen was a little surprised that the AI had to do real work to earn money…

He thought the AI could directly change the numbers in its bank account.

“Hurry up and complete the deal. Otherwise, I will let Liu Dezhu sit in jail until his death,” ONE said.

“Liu Dezhu might find your offer appealing.” Qing Chen sighed.

ONE reminded him, “One last request. You’ll be meeting with the daughter of one of the most powerful men in the consortium, so don’t be stingy. I don’t need you to save my money.”

Qing Chen thought,‘even the AI have vanity?’

At this time, the floating car finally landed on the ground.

The two rows of bodyguards at the entrance of Yunji Cafe took action. One row was guarding the entrance, and the other row slowly approached the floating car. Two of them had their hands in their pockets, looking like they might take out their pistols at any time.

In no way did this look like meeting an online date for the first time. It was more like an underground trade happening.

When Qing Chen got out of the car, someone started patting him down. One of the bodyguards even used a strange pen-like detector to scan his whole body.

Only after confirming that he only had a phone on him did the bodyguards let him pass.

Yunji Cafe was next to the street. The entrance was quite small, but it suddenly became spacious when he walked up the stairs.

There were no waiters in the huge cafe, only a young girl with two ponytails sitting quietly at a table, and a middle-aged woman wearing a waiter’s uniform grinding coffee at the bar.

The middle-aged woman’s hands were covered with calluses, clearly showing traces of her years of experience with handling firearms. She must be one of Qing Shi’s bodyguards pretending to be a waiter.

The woman glanced at Qing Chen and asked, “What would you like to have?”

As he was about to choose, Qing Chen’s phone displayed a line of small words: Order the most expensive option.

Qing Chen looked up at the woman and said, “I want to buy this cafe.”

His phone screen started flashing in chaos, resembling ONE’s current emotion.

The woman hesitated and responded, “The cafe isn’t for sale.”

“Oh, then a cup of coffee will do,” Qing Chen said as he walked towards the girl not far away.

The girl’s eyes lit up when she saw Qing Chen. She waved and said, “This way!”

Qing Chen sat down in front of her and asked, “Are you ‘A Little Whale’?”

Qing Shi smiled and asked, “Are you ‘Cutie’? You look exactly like the photo you sent. I heard of many people using filters and editors before, so I was a little worried.”

Cutie…

ONE indeed had an embarrassing online chat ID.

This is obviously not an ID suitable for a wandering poet. Which wandering poet would name himself “Cutie”?!

He looked carefully at her and saw that the shadow candidate Qing Shi had a black necklace around her neck, with a crystal pearl inlaid in the center of the necklace.

The girl was very pretty and met ONE’s criteria for choosing a friend.

After the two people confirmed each other’s IDs, both of them sat there in awkward silence.

It seemed to be a bit difficult to transition from online to reality.

Qing Chen took a glance at his phone and saw a message from ONE: Take the initiative to chat. Compliment her on her beauty. Do something to break the silence.

He looked up at Qing Shi, “She’s very beautiful.”

ONE: ???

You’re doing this on purpose aren’t you?

Qing Shi didn’t understand what he said, “Who’s beautiful?”

Qing Chen said with a smile, “Nothing. I’m surprised by your identity in real life, and I didn’t expect to receive such a grand welcome.”

Qing Shi said cautiously, “I came to City 18 in a bit of a hurry and didn’t tell you in advance. I know this is violating our agreement to not meet in person, so thank you for being willing to see me. I also want to say sorry for the bodyguards outside patting you down, but there is nothing I can do about it. It was my father’s request.”

Qing Chen was silent. He didn’t know what he should say to fit ‘Cutie’s’ persona.

On the phone, another message came from ONE: Don’t sit across from her. Sit next to her. Go hold her hand and say you missed her.

Qing Chen was shocked. ‘Is that what the AI meant by purely simple friendship?’

He typed on his phone: That will cost you extra.

The girl stared at Qing Chen with her shining eyes, “I thought your photos were edited before, and I didn’t expect you to be so good-looking in person… Are you really a wandering poet? You don’t look like one.”

“What do you think a wandering poet should look like?” Qing Chen asked.

“You should have long hair and a slovenly look,” Qing Shi thought for a moment and said, “But you look very clean and don’t look like a homeless person.”

Another line of small words appeared on Qing Chen’s phone: I just want to wander into your heart.

He glanced at the sentence and turned the phone upside down on the table.

Qing Chen felt that ONE’s nickname shouldn’t be “Cutie”, but “Disgusting”.

After flipping the phone over, Qing Chen didn’t think about what ONE wanted again and asked the question he was most concerned about, “I dressed a little nicer knowing that I’ll be meeting you today. By the way, why did you suddenly come to City 18? Also, why would your family even allow you to meet someone like me?”

“As I told you the day before, I am a shadow candidate. The second round requires us to be here in City 18, but I can’t tell you about the specific mission,” Qing Shi thought for a while and explained, “I’ve kept my family in the dark about this meeting with you. I told them I was meeting a partner in City 18 for the Fight for the Shadow. They didn’t know about our relationship…”

Since she took the initiative to bring up the Fight, Qing Chen pretended to be worried and asked, “The federal media has been reporting on the Fight for the Shadow. Will it put you in danger?”

“No,” Qing Shi smiled and said, “I didn’t originally want to participate in the Fight, but since my branch of the family was selected to participate, someone from our branch must go. My father told me to be safe and not try too hard.”

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