Want to be human, but cube-like

She just leaned on the windowsill, watching the street outside the hamburger shop gradually become lively.

Every passerby who appeared in Alex's field of vision seemed to have unpredictable thoughts and behaviors, yet they followed some kind of pattern or rule that she did not understand.

Their behavior seems to be confined to a certain framework, yet within this established framework, they appear quite free.

They all resemble Toyokawa Shoko, the person Alex thought was very special just yesterday.

Under some kind of constraint unknown to Alex, their behavioral logic is neither bound nor elusive.

The creatures in this world don't seem to be villagers.

None of them are NPCs.

Thinking back to last night, I reflected on my evaluation of Toyokawa Shoko.

If we were to talk about Toyokawa Shoko, she would be the same kind of person as his mother.

It is special.

Rather, one might say that one's own mother is perhaps one of the countless special beings in this world.

If everyone is more special than you, can you still call yourself special?

At that moment, Alex, in a daze, realized a fact.

Compared to them, I feel so out of place.

Perhaps, that's the only special one.

They, and the people of this world, are all better than themselves.

More authentic.

……

"We are all just ordinary people."

Xiangzi responded to her, interrupting her increasingly deep thoughts.

"An ordinary...person?"

Alex's scattered gaze returned to what was in front of her.

What exactly constitutes "ordinary"?

During their conversation, the two had already reached the hamburger shop on the first floor.

"..."

Xiangzi's steps faltered.

"I do not know either."

Xiangzi closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again, only to shake his head.

Someone asked her this question before.

At that time, she was able to respond to the other person with enthusiasm.

But now, she no longer has that energy.

"How can one become an ordinary person?"

Alex spoke again.

She didn't seem to be waiting for Xiangzi's answer, but rather asking herself a question. Before she could finish speaking, she pushed open the stairwell door and went into the hamburger shop.

"..."

Always following

Xiangzi, standing behind her, froze completely, his expression becoming somewhat complicated.

She parted her lips slightly, then paused.

The tall figure in front of me seemed to be getting more and more familiar.

Her snow-white hair and her much taller stature made her completely different from her former companions.

But at this moment, Xiangzi seemed to see that familiar figure again.

It was as if they had merged together at some point.

A nameless fear welled up in Xiangzi's heart.

She couldn't help but recall what happened that night.

……

I do not exist here; this is not my home.

"I...can't sing at all..."

[I am with everyone, but I feel like I am alone]

Why did you choose me?

In my ears, that familiar voice seemed to echo once again.

Even the lyrics seemed to emerge from the depths of my memory.

"Because the lyrics of 'The Lamp' are a heartfelt cry."

"I want to be human!"

"Come on, lights, shout with all your might!"

[I clearly want to live like everyone else]

"...I want to live like everyone else!"

I really want to be human.

"I want to be human!"

……

The phantoms of the past caught up with her in an instant, but her imprisoned soul could not escape.

At that time, I placed all my hopes on that partner called 'community of shared destiny'.

She thought that happy times would last forever.

But cruel reality shattered her hopes into unrecoverable fragments.

So, in the end, she let go.

They were abandoned almost as if they were breaking free from their bonds.

What about this time?

Before my eyes, that bewildered figure had gradually walked away.

Do I still have the right to say those words this time?

Xiangzi hesitated for a moment, then chased after him.

"Alex!"

She grasped the other person's bewildered hand.

His blood-red agate eyes, filled with deep loneliness, gazed at her.

"I……"

It overlapped with the amber eyes in my memory.

"..."

The fear of repeating the same mistakes instantly drowned out the words she wanted to say.

"...No, it's nothing."

She gently released her grip on the other person's hand.

"I just want to say that from now on you can just call me Xiangzi."

Controlling her facial expression, she forced a standard smile.

In his eyes, only sorrow remained.

…………

PS: Once the affection level is reached and the player chooses "Go back to your room to rest, and take a shower later," the player enters Xiangzi's IF route (this route is unlocked in the second playthrough due to affection level inheritance).

If the affection level is not high enough, choose "Go back to your room to rest, and take a shower later" in the morning to enter the True Ending route.

If the affection level is not high enough, choose "Go take a shower, then go downstairs to organize the menu" in the morning to close Xiangzi's affection system and enter the Bad Ending route (Ending: A Lonely Live, An Empty Witch's Night).

I initially wrote an IF route for Xiangzi, but after thinking about it, I changed it to a TE route, since I plan to focus on a one-versus-many scenario.

You can also guess why choosing the wrong option will directly lead to a bad ending and fast forward to Witch's Night.

Volume 1: Chapter 20 The Hamburger Shop Never Closes Today

“… Xiangzi?”

Alex looked into Xiangzi's amber eyes and tilted her head.

"Yes, that's good. Calling him Toyokawa all the time is too formal."

Lowering his eyes, Xiangzi avoided meeting Alex's gaze, and she responded softly.

Alex didn't understand why calling someone by only the first two words would sound distant; she simply addressed them by the first two words of the abbreviation.

Whether she was called Fengchuan or Xiangzi, the two names made no difference to her.

"Let me make you breakfast first. What would you like to eat?"

As she spoke, Alex walked to the refrigerator in the back kitchen.

"No, no need to trouble yourself... Where did you get all this meat?"

Just as Xiangzi was about to politely decline the offer, he saw Alex open the refrigerator door and take out a large amount of meat from her backpack and stuff it into the refrigerator.

At a glance, you can tell that it contains chicken, pork, lamb, and beef. In just a few breaths, she filled the entire refrigerator, even the refrigerator door was covered with eggs.

In comparison, the dozen or so tomatoes and cabbages next to them, which had their space taken up, looked rather pitiful.

"A lot of animals spawned on the Sky Island last night. After building the mob farm, I also planted some wheat, carrots and potatoes, so I divided it into four farms. These are the losses incurred when building the farms last night."

The 'losses' Alex refers to are the small number of animals that she killed in a fit of rage because she couldn't get them into the enclosure.

It's hard to imagine that such a small floating island could produce plants and animals out of thin air.

Another world...how amazing...

Xiangzi felt a little envious of this life where he could eat meat without spending any money, and he sighed to himself.

"There were originally two more foxes, but they couldn't be tamed because they didn't have any sweet berries on them."

Alex said with a hint of regret.

There was no need to tell Xiangzi about the fact that she was eventually killed by the wolves that appeared and turned into two portions of fox meat in her bag.

Since the refrigerator was already full, she didn't put the fox meat and three pieces of wolf meat from her bag in as well.

"What kind of meat do you want? You can add whatever you like to the burger, as much meat and vegetables as you like."

He randomly took out one portion of each of the four types of meat, and with extremely quick movements, he chopped the chicken into chicken cubes, the lamb into small pieces of ribs, minced the beef into ground meat, and sliced ​​the pork into strips of bacon, setting them all aside for later use.

“…Um, I…”

Xiangzi, who was standing aside watching her prepare the ingredients, was so engrossed that she couldn't help but swallow.

Heaven knows how long it's been since Xiangzi tasted these things.

Even just looking at raw meat, she could almost imagine the aroma emanating from the muscle fibers as they were fried in butter, and the glistening saliva that was already beginning to secrete under her soft little tongue.

I remembered the egg burger I ate last night. Even with such simple ingredients, Alex made it into an impeccable delicacy.

Not to mention, these ingredients today are of absolutely superb quality, which can be identified at a glance.

"Chicken, that's fine. I'll pay for the meal..."