Seeing Rookie covering his face, looking both wronged and shocked, Notch couldn't help rolling his eyes and said impatiently, "What do you mean, I'm alive?!!"
"What, what were you doing getting up in my face like that??"
Hearing Notch's words, Rookie was just about to speak when Notch interrupted his "spellcasting."
"Don't tell me you were trying to see if I was still breathing?"
At those words, Rookie instantly turned into a woodpecker, nodding frantically.
Just as he was about to open his mouth again, Notch cut him off once more.
"You could've just used your hand to check if I was still breathing! Why did you have to get that close?!"
"What's next? You were planning to give me mouth-to-mouth, huh?!"
Honestly, it really had to be Notch.
He was probably the only one who could keep up with Rookie's bizarre thought process and completely break his "spell."
While grumbling at Rookie, Notch stood up and stepped out of the game pod.
After leaving the pod, he turned and strode quickly toward his desk, yanked open a drawer, took out a mirror, and began carefully inspecting his face.
After studying it closely for a long while and finding nothing unusual, Notch lifted the mirror a bit higher, lowered his head, and examined the top of his head carefully again…
When he finally confirmed there was nothing "strange" on either his face or his head, the giant weight in his heart dropped at last, and he let out a long sigh of relief.
"This kid actually behaved this time?…"
As Notch thought about that, he turned his gaze toward Rookie.
But when he noticed Rookie's expression looked slightly different from before, that same weight he had just dropped immediately floated right back up again.
He rummaged through the drawer again, pulled out a UV lamp, and shined it all over himself, then checked the mirror one more time, extra carefully…
Seeing what Notch was doing, Rookie almost couldn't hold it in anymore.
Notch was clearly suffering from "once bitten by a snake, ten years afraid of the rope." Rookie had indeed done "a few things" before when his subconscious had been in control.
Back then, he had just been too bored. Not long after Notch reassigned him to this position, Notch entered the Trial Grounds.
Once Notch entered, he'd just lie in the game pod for an entire day at a time.
Rookie had nothing to do in the office all day long, so he could only find ways to entertain himself.
But ever since coming into contact with Entity 303, Rookie's subconscious had completely abandoned him.
Rookie really hadn't had the time, or the nerve, to find "fun" again.
Just now, when Rookie leaned close to Notch, he had only wanted to copy some data from Notch's game pod to see if he could extract any useful information.
But Notch suddenly opened his eyes, which really scared the hell out of Rookie.
Notch's sudden awakening left Rookie at a total loss for what to do.
Recently, Rookie had been getting an overwhelming amount of information, and he knew full well that every decision Notch made could directly influence the fate of this world.
That was precisely why Rookie now felt a bit too nervous to even talk to Notch.
As he thought that, Rookie was just about to find a chance to slip away when Notch finally set down the mirror, exhaled in relief, and said, "I'm going to the bathroom."
"Make me a cup of tea. And find something to eat."
"We'll talk when I get back."
After saying that, Notch hurriedly left.
Hearing Notch say he wanted to "talk," Rookie's heart instantly tightened.
'Subconscious! Oh subconscious!! When are you coming back?! I need you!!'
Rookie wasn't the type who couldn't keep secrets. Even now, with his main consciousness in control, he still wouldn't carelessly slip up.
But the problem was, he was facing Notch. The two of them were the same kind of person. Notch could easily see through his behavior.
Earlier, Notch had been startled by Rookie, and his attention had been completely focused on imagining some prank Rookie might be pulling. He hadn't paid much attention to Rookie himself.
Besides, he probably had to use the bathroom pretty badly, so he hadn't noticed anything off about him.
But once they started talking, who knew what might happen.
Thinking that, Rookie let out a long sigh and muttered, "Forget it… the pause period only lasts an hour anyway… As long as I'm careful, nothing should slip…"
Even though Rookie didn't want to face Notch right now, he knew he'd have to sooner or later. Luckily, the Trial Grounds' pause time only lasted one hour, he could barely manage that much.
After making the tea and grabbing a few pieces of bread from the pantry, Rookie returned to the office.
He hadn't been back long before Notch returned.
Notch walked over to his desk, tore open a bread packet, took a bite, sipped some tea, then looked at Rookie with a serious expression and asked, "Do I really not have the proper qualities a game creator should have?"
Hearing that, Rookie froze completely.
Just seeing Notch's serious expression earlier, he thought Notch was about to discuss something huge.
But then, out of nowhere, this random question popped out, and Rookie was utterly baffled.
At this moment, his face was full of question marks as he blankly muttered, "Huh??"
He was about to say something more, but Notch interrupted him again.
Notch looked like he'd suffered a huge injustice, full of righteous anger as he declared, "I admit I didn't fulfill my duties at first!"
"But back then I almost lost my life because of this game, how could I not be scared?!"
"But when the higher-ups sent me that message, I still came back immediately to deal with the problem!"
"Yes, I ran away, but I also kept telling myself not to run away!"
"I could've ignored everything and stayed on vacation, but I didn't! I chose to come back!"
"So how, how, do I not have the qualities a creator should have?!"
"I…"
The more Notch spoke, the more emotional he became. He waved his arms around, his voice full of passion, eyes full of helplessness, he genuinely looked deeply wronged and unfairly accused.
He wasn't outright denying what Xu Yuan had said, because Xu Yuan wasn't wrong.
Indeed, he hadn't deeply understood this world, that point he couldn't argue.
However, he also had his own reasons.
He hadn't done everything perfectly, true, but it wasn't like he'd done nothing.
It was like when a teacher scolds you for not finishing your homework, you know you were wrong.
But did you really not write anything? In truth, you did some of it, you just didn't finish.
Then the teacher scolds you, and you can't argue back, and you can't complain to your parents either.
But deep down, you still feel wronged, you just want someone to listen.
You don't want someone to say, "You were right not to do it, the teacher was wrong."
You just want someone to say, "Yeah, you did write part of it."
That was exactly how Notch felt now, basically, he was just like a kid who'd been scolded and wanted to vent.
He couldn't complain to Xu Yuan, and there was no one else he could talk to, so right now, the only person he could vent to was Rookie.
After talking for quite a while, Notch finally calmed down.
Once he got everything off his chest, he didn't even need Rookie's agreement, just saying it out loud made him feel much lighter.
He took a breath, sipped some tea, and was about to tell Rookie his next plan, when he suddenly noticed Rookie leaning closer, holding a phone.
Rookie set the phone on the desk, tapped the screen to wake it, entered the password, and unlocked it.
Notch was already confused by the sudden move, but when he saw the password Rookie entered, he finally couldn't hold back anymore.
"You figured out my new password already?!!!"
This kind of thing had happened more than once or twice, so Notch was pretty much numb to it by now. He just sighed, then asked, "What are you doing?"
Rookie ignored him, opened Social Media, spread his hand in a "please" gesture, and said, "Scroll."
Notch stared at him with a face full of question marks.
"?????"
"What the hell are you doing?"
Rookie didn't answer and instead repeated the same gesture and word.
"Scroll."
Notch looked at him suspiciously, having no idea what he was planning.
"Scroll what?"
Seeing Notch didn't get it, Rookie explained, "Scroll ten videos."
Notch could usually keep up with Rookie's train of thought, but not every time.
Even though he didn't know what Rookie was trying to do, he knew one thing, Rookie was stubborn.
So with a long sigh, under Rookie's "supervision," Notch reluctantly started scrolling through short videos, totally confused.
After scrolling through ten videos, Notch was just about to ask what the point was...
...but Rookie snatched the phone back, closed Social Media, opened another video app, and set it in front of Notch again.
"Keep scrolling."
At this point, Notch was completely dumbfounded.
"??????"
"Scroll what now???"
Seeing that Notch was getting irritated, Rookie assured him, "This is the last one."
Hearing that, Notch rolled his eyes and sighed, "Fine, fine…"
"I'll scroll!"
After scrolling for a while longer, Rookie finally took the phone back.
Once he had it in his hand again, he finally spoke.
"Notice anything?"
Even though Rookie finally said something, it didn't help, Notch was still utterly lost.
"The videos… play really smoothly?"
Hearing that, Rookie let out a long sigh and looked at Notch helplessly.
"You should be pretty familiar with big data, right?"