Want to be human, but cube-like

…………

P.S. This is just a transitional chapter. I spent another day browsing other people's fan art... My daily update schedule for the second chapter might be a bit irregular from now on. Things should get better once I get back into form.

Volume 1: Chapter 125 Shall we lie down together?

Having solved the currency problem, Alex, who had purchased the blue dye, was finally able to synthesize the blueprint she had been longing for.

"blueprint!"

Holding up a blue blueprint in both hands, Alex shouted happily.

"Okay, next up is to select and add rooms..."

Muttering to herself, she excitedly took the blueprint, bypassed the portal, and entered the tavern building through another door she had opened herself.

Are you that happy?

With a slight smile, Xiangzi stood aside, watching Alex's adorable appearance, and thought to himself.

She turned her head and looked at the shepherd, who was trapped in the small room and could barely move, only able to turn around. She hesitated for a moment before walking forward.

Although Alex had just shown her the various characteristics of the villagers, Xiangzi was still curious and wanted to see what the interactive interface that Alex had mentioned looked like.

So, Xiangzi hesitated for a moment, then imitated Alex's action and waved to the shepherd as well.

"..."

A man and a villager stood silently, their high-resolution, light gold-amber eyes meeting for a few seconds with another pair of low-resolution, square black eyes.

"……Hello?"

She greeted him softly and tentatively.

"..."

But the villagers still didn't seem to want to respond to Xiangzi at all.

"No way..."

Sighing somewhat dejectedly, Xiangzi turned to look at Alex, who was not far away. She was probably still studying the blueprint in the tavern and hadn't noticed Xiangzi's actions.

"A blocky person... Did Alex look similar to this before?"

Observing the shepherd's appearance carefully, Xiangzi found it a little hard to imagine what Alex would look like if she were in a blocky form.

Despite the other party's claim that he was much better looking than the villagers, Xiangzi still couldn't quite tell what kind of square-shaped people were considered good-looking.

Besides, is something so square really going to look good?

She remembered that Alex had previously said that her mother also said that her cube-shaped appearance was cute.

"Hmm... I can't quite understand the aesthetics of people from another world."

Muttering something under his breath, Xiangzi took a few steps back and went around to the side, using the narrow field of vision of the small room to keep his eyes away from the shepherd.

After staring at the shepherd for a while, she suddenly felt a little scared.

At first, she didn't think anything was wrong, but ever since Alex told her about the true nature of the villagers—that they were puppets without any sense of self—Xiangzi felt that the inhumanity of the shepherd in front of her was becoming more and more intense.

Furthermore, when you get close to it, it will turn its head and stare intently at you.

Xiangzi suddenly experienced what is known as the uncanny valley effect.

I never felt scared when I looked at those dolls at home before. Is it because they could move?

Even on a bright sunny day, standing outside in the same space as the shepherd, Xiangzi still felt a little creeped out. After thinking for a moment, she decided to head towards the tavern.

"Alex?"

Xiangzi gently pushed open the door, peeked in, and glanced around.

At this moment, Alex was inside the tavern, sitting on a red cushion on the ground. She was leaning on the wooden board in front of her, her cheeks puffed out, looking quite depressed.

"What's wrong? Didn't we say we were going to use this blueprint to recruit villagers?"

Seeing this, Xiangzi walked in with some confusion.

"The blueprint has already selected this building as the spawn point, but we still have to wait for the adventurer to appear on his own... Ah, the adventurer is the villager class that can be recruited in the tavern, and after being recruited, they can also change their class through work blocks."

Alex raised her eyes slightly, looked at Xiangzi, explained a little, and then lay down again.

"So, will it take a long time?"

Slowly sitting down on the cushion opposite Alex, Xiangzi continued to ask.

"do not know……"

Alex's expression looked like that because she didn't know how long she would have to wait.

She had read the quest log, which only said to select a building using the blueprint and then just wait, but it didn't mention the adventurer spawn frequency, which meant it was probably completely random.

Alex's only concern now is that if it has a refresh mechanism like the wandering merchant, then it will truly be entirely based on luck.

"How about... we go back and rest first, and come back tomorrow?"

have a look?"

In a tone as if coaxing a child to sleep, Xiangzi glanced at the time on his phone and softly asked Alex.

She didn't even realize how late it was, almost midnight.

"Hmm... I want to see what the adventurers look like when they spawn..."

Alex said softly, making a nasal sound rather reluctantly.

It's just staying up late; it won't have any impact on her.

For Alex to abandon her expectations for developing sky island technology at a time like this and go back to sleep obediently, her mother would probably have to step in.

"If Xiangzi is sleepy, you should go back and rest first."

Looking at Xiangzi, who seemed somewhat tired, Alex hesitated for a moment before saying this.

"It's okay. I'll accompany you."

But Xiangzi just shook her head. If Alex chose to wait here, she didn't want to go back to her room alone.

Like before, waking up to find the island completely changed after a night's sleep, Xiangzi was reluctant to experience that again.

She enjoyed working on the Sky Island with Alex and naturally didn't want to miss these key moments in the construction of the Sky Island—even though most of the time, she was fishing upstairs while Alex was camping the mob farm downstairs, and the two were so far apart that they could only hear each other when they shouted loudly.

"...But you must be very sleepy."

Seeing that Xiangzi seemed to be forcing himself, Alex stood up.

"Oh, right, I remember there are beds on the second floor of the tavern. Would you like to go up and lie down for a bit?"

"Eh?"

Although she spoke in a questioning tone, before Xiangzi could answer, she had already pulled him up, taken his hand, and the two of them walked up the stairs together.

Stepping onto the second floor of the tavern, around the corner, four beds came into view.

There are two beds pushed together on either side, which look like two double beds. An oak log serves as a bedside table in the middle, separating the two double beds.

"Xiangzi, why don't you take a nap first? I'll wake you up when the adventurer appears."

Alex led Xiangzi to a nearby bed, sat down, patted the soft mattress, and smiled.

"Alex... are you going to lie down too?"

Xiangzi glanced at the other double bed next to him and asked somewhat awkwardly.

If Alex is going to lie down too, then she should probably go to the other bed, right?

Xiangzi, whose pretty face flushed slightly, thought to herself as some strange ideas suddenly popped into her head.

…………

PS: While I was writing this while checking recipes and examining building features in Minecraft, I came across some materials from a mod and saw something interesting, which suddenly gave me an interesting idea.

I won't tell you yet.

Volume 1: Chapter 126 The Unscrupulous Merchant

"call……"

On the second floor of the tavern, Xiangzi sat on the bed, her small, white feet, bare of shoes and socks, curled up, leaving tiny footprints on the bed. She wrapped her arms around her knees, her eyes lowered, and sighed softly.

Xiangzi didn't know why he was sighing.

Alex chatted with her for a few minutes before going back downstairs to rest. She told her to stay there and take a nap, and that if any adventurers appeared in the tavern later, she would come up and wake her up.

For some reason, Xiangzi suddenly felt that he might have been overthinking things.

She buried her face in her knees, leaving only her wet eyes peeking out as she stared at the torches stuck in the opposite wall to light up the room.

The orange-red flames flickered slightly, and the scattered light occasionally trembled, falling into Xiangzi's eyes and making her somewhat lost in thought.

The area around this tavern is probably the quietest place in the entire Sky Island world right now.

Further out are those noisy animals, and even further away, there are all sorts of monsters constantly falling from the mob farm.

Only when you are inside this building is it so quiet that you can clearly hear your own breathing and heartbeat.

You can even hear the sounds of Alex moving around downstairs from time to time, the rustling of her clothes against each other.

"what……"

Xiangzi covered his open mouth and yawned softly. He lay down, turned to his side, and looked out the window at the still bright sunshine.

She slowly closed her eyes, her breathing slowing down.

"..."

But after a while, Xiangzi opened his eyes.

She turned slightly, lay flat on her back, and looked up at the unfamiliar ceiling.

"I feel like I can't sleep..."

He muttered something to himself in a low voice.

"Can't Xiangzi sleep?"

"!?"

A voice suddenly came from downstairs asking a question, which startled Xiangzi so much that he sat up abruptly.

"Ah... yes, a little..."

She never expected that Alex could hear her voice from a floor away, even though she was speaking so softly.

That makes sense, though. It's supposed to be two floors, but there aren't even any doors. The only thing separating them is a wooden plank that doesn't seem to offer much sound insulation, and yet the surroundings are so quiet.

"Alex."

After a moment of silence, Xiangzi lay down again and spoke softly, with a hint of probing.

"I remember you just said that you were holding Aine's hand as you walked her home tonight?"

Sure enough, Xiangzi was still a little concerned about what exactly happened between Alex and Aine tonight.

I only care about it a little bit.

"Yeah."

Alex answered calmly, seemingly not finding anything wrong with it.

Rather, if she feels there's a problem, then that's the real big problem.

"You...do you really like Aine-kun?"

After struggling for a while and deliberating for a long time without coming up with a better way to start the conversation, Xiangzi finally just asked in a straightforward tone, seemingly indifferent.

"Yeah, I like it very much!"