Chapter 539: Chapter 538: The Great Debate Sparked by Ghost Stories

“Finally got it sorted out…”

After stepping out of the Observatory, Fang Zheng couldn’t help but stretch lazily. Although the previous thoughts on AI had racked his brain, Fang Zheng certainly didn’t view all artificial intelligence as a scourge simply because of that discussion.

In fact, Yume Hoshino’s logic hadn’t been flawed; in the results of the code analysis, Fang Zheng found that the reason this AI thought it had an unknown BUG was because the staff member who left the Observatory had told her before departing that they were just going on a trip and would come back later. But after that, she never saw the staff member return, nor did she encounter another customer, which led to Yume Hoshino’s self-doubt. Perhaps no one would come back, but she believed her conclusion was wrong, that customers would still visit and the staff member would come back too. After considering it, she concluded that her logic didn’t match, so she thought there was a malfunction in her programming.

If one were to think rationally, this was nothing more than a computer requesting a virus database upgrade for system maintenance due to a self-check failure. However, even Fang Zheng, after understanding the cause and effect, felt somewhat melancholic. After much deliberation, he still opted to delete and amend that part. He changed the staff’s departure to retirement and the Observatory went back under the ownership of Heavenly Dao Palace… Although Fang Zheng knew that these changes didn’t make much sense, but…

After all, he too was a sentient being with weaknesses.

What surprised Fang Zheng was that the little girl who shared the same name as the Fire Mist Warrior he knew actually managed to fix Yume Hoshino. Honestly, although Fang Zheng had long realized that the characters in these worlds couldn’t be judged by ordinary standards, it was still surprising that a ten-year-old girl could fix a high-precision product of cross-world technology.

Perhaps it really would be a good idea to let the little girl plan urban development?

But those were matters for later. The Observatory was taken care of, and once the maintenances were complete, it could open for business. Franca Workshop also passed Fang Zheng’s “test,” leaving only Kitanatei. Speaking of which, he had been running around a lot these days, it was time to find a hot spring and take a good rest… Hmm?

As Fang Zheng turned a street corner, intending to head to Kitanatei, the sound of arguing nearby drew his attention.

“Sister Dear’s approach is simply wrong, you can’t do it like that!”

“But your method isn’t any better, is it? Under those circumstances, there’s not much we can do.”

“But we have to do something, right? Are you just going to stand by and watch?”

“Alright, alright, you two, stop arguing…”

What’s going on?

Hearing these voices, Fang Zheng curiously peeked his head out, only to see two Cursed Children arguing heatedly on a bench beside the park, while another with wings, resembling an angelic Cursed Child, was smiling wryly as she tried to break up the fight.

They’re arguing?

Seeing this, Fang Zheng was quite surprised. Honestly, this was the first time he saw the Cursed Children arguing so fiercely. Known for their tolerance towards each other due to their experiences in the Pitch Black World, clashes were rare, so what was this about?

“What happened?”

Since he had stumbled upon the scene, Fang Zheng naturally couldn’t just ignore it. He turned and walked over, asking as he did so. Hearing Fang Zheng’s question, the three girls hurriedly looked up in his direction, and then all were quite astonished.

“Mr. Fang Zheng?”

“Brother Fang Zheng?”

“Hey.”

Listening to the jumbled greetings around him, Fang Zheng raised his hand and waved back at them.

“What’s going on here? Such a fierce argument? Don’t tell me it’s over candy.”

“No, it’s not like that, Mr. Fang Zheng!”

Hearing Fang Zheng’s jest, one of the girls who had previously been arguing, and who looked older, hurriedly waved her hands with her face turning red.

“It’s nothing serious, just some minor disagreement, that’s all……”

However, unlike her, the younger looking girl on the other side was all excited as she raised her hand.

“Brother Fang Zheng, you’ve come at just the right time, can you please judge our argument and see if what we are saying makes sense?”

“Exactly what are you all talking about?”

In the face of the little girl’s words, Fang Zheng was startled, and then turned to the three of them. At this moment, the girl with wings in the middle, who had been trying to mediate, timidly started speaking.

“This… Mr. Fang Zheng, here’s the thing……”

And under the narration of the girl with wings, Fang Zheng finally understood what had happened — and it was actually related to Tina.

Since starting her live broadcasts, Tina has been telling ghost stories every night, which was no longer news; even Fang Zheng would occasionally tune in to listen to the midnight show. This time, the two sisters were arguing over the story Tina told last night.

The ghost story that Tina told last night was called “Meat Village,” about a young man who goes on a wilderness adventure, inadvertently gets lost in the forest, and then comes upon a village isolated from the outside world. The village was thriving, with each household having several children. They rescued the young man and hosted him enthusiastically. In the village, the young man met a beautiful girl, and over time, they developed feelings for each other, eventually leading the young man to propose marriage, promising to take her back to his city to live a happy life.

And when faced with the young man’s proposal, the girl nodded in agreement.

Learning that the young man wanted to leave, the villagers prepared a grand farewell banquet for him. The night before he was to leave, they prepared a lavish feast, letting the young man have a good meal. But, for some reason, the girl did not show up at that time.

The young man initially thought that the girl had decided not to leave, but to his surprise, the girl appeared before him again the next day saying that she had gone to say goodbye to her parents because she was leaving the village. The young man did not suspect anything and decided to leave with the girl, and he also took with him a large box of packed lunch that the girl’s parents had given him.

With the girl’s guidance, it took the young man a long time to finally get out of the forest. Looking at the highway not far away, he was extremely excited. However, after walking a whole day, he felt hungry. Thinking of the food prepared by the girl’s parents, he decided to eat a good meal to replenish his strength before leaving.

But what the young man did not expect was that when he opened the heavy box, he saw the smoked and roasted head and limbs of the girl!

It turned out that what he ate the day before was all the girl’s body, and the one following him was her ghost!

The young man was naturally frightened, and it was only then that the girl’s ghost revealed to him that in their village there was a custom–if a couple was to marry, to avert marital discord, one of them must eat the other upon their union. She could not bear the thought of the young man being eaten, and out of love, volunteered to be the one eaten by him……

Of course, this was just a ghost story, and Tina ended it there, but the curse-cursed children with their wild imaginations made things complicated after hearing it.

And the reason lay in a forum post.

At that time, a few kids started a discussion on this story, then began to fantasize what they would do if they entered the world of the story… and that’s how the conflict arose.

Some believed that if they went to that world, they would definitely take the young man and run away immediately.

Others felt that the village’s customs were too horrifying to continue–after all, in these kids’ minds, love was still pure and beautiful, and hadn’t reached the point of literally transforming into praying mantises.

Yet, there were also those who thought it was the village’s own custom, and if its own people saw nothing wrong with it, they shouldn’t meddle, just let the village carry on its way, and they only needed to rescue the young man.

At first the discussion was relatively normal, but it escalated when a contrarian, apparently unable to win the argument, came out with a line… “Based on what you people upstairs are saying, it’s totally normal for us, the Cursed Children, to be discriminated against in our original worlds, isn’t it? Then why did Brother Fang Zheng rescue us?”

As a result, when this post came out, it stirred up a hornet’s nest.